The company’s German branch head Thomas Gottschild, who noted that defense contractors cannot produce stocks without orders being placed first, did point out that production could be resumed if Berlin issues an appropriate contract.
Such an order, however, would have to be “substantial and long term to warrant a resumption of production,” said Mikael Valtersson, a former officer of the Swedish Armed Forces and chief of staff of the Sweden Democrats political party.
As Valtersson explained to Sputnik, many of the smaller subcontractors that were involved in the missile’s manufacturing process have since “shifted to other areas of production.”
“To convince subcontractors to focus on Taurus production, they must believe that investments will be repaid and profits assured. This demands substantial long-term orders. The same goes for Taurus which has to hire and train skilled workers and probably has to sign long-term contracts with subcontractors and other suppliers,” he said.
Commenting on speculation about if Germany might cave in to calls from its NATO allies to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine, Valtersson observed that Berlin currently has 600 such missiles at its disposal and “could probably deliver up to 200 missiles to Ukraine within 6-12 months.”
“There will probably be no new orders for Taurus missiles since Germany probably will be the only customer and an order of around 200 new missiles to replace missiles that could be sent to Ukraine will result in very high unit costs to motivate a resumption of production,” he mused.
Thus, Valtersson reasoned, it appears unlikely that Berlin will send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, “since there aren't any plans to order new expensive missiles and the fact that Germany thinks it needs at least 600 missiles in the more hostile international climate that exists now.”
He further noted that this situation is complicated by the fact that MBDA “also has its focus on co-production of the Patriot PAC2 GEM-T anti-ballistic missile variant of the Patriot Air Defence system.”
“This shows a general deficiency in European weapons production, the home market is too small and production numbers subsequently also too small to allow for large numbers of weapon systems with a combination of good prices and quality,” Valtersson remarked.