Germany has signed a roughly €1.52 billion contract through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency to buy eight MQ‑9B “SeaGuardian” maritime drones from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The deal, approved by the Bundestag budget committee on 17 December 2025 and formally announced in January 2026, aims to field the first aircraft by 2028 and station them at the naval aviation base in Nordholz.
The MQ‑9B variant ordered by Germany is designed for persistent maritime patrols: General Atomics advertises endurance in excess of 30 hours and a mission radius around 1,200 nautical miles. The platform includes satellite command-and-control for near‑global coverage, de‑icing systems for cold‑weather operations and an integrated detect‑and‑avoid package that makes flights in non‑segregated civil airspace feasible.
Berlin intends the SeaGuardian fleet to focus on surveillance of the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic and to specialise in anti‑submarine warfare (ASW) missions. The drones will operate alongside Germany’s eight P‑8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, creating a layered surveillance architecture that stretches scarce manned assets and lengthens time on station over critical areas.
The procurement reflects a clear reorientation of German defence priorities toward maritime domain awareness. Concerns about Russian submarine activity, and the security of undersea critical infrastructure such as cables, pipelines and offshore energy facilities, have sharpened political and military attention across Europe. Persistent unmanned platforms offer an attractive, lower‑risk way to track contacts and cue more capable manned assets or allied forces.
Deploying and operationalising the MQ‑9Bs will pose challenges. Germany will need to integrate sensors and ASW payloads, set rules for operating unmanned systems over busy North European air corridors, and build sustainment and training pipelines for long‑range maritime drone operations. There is also a political dimension: domestic debates over remotely piloted systems persist, and decisions about arming or strictly using the drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance will shape how they are employed.
In NATO terms the acquisition signals deeper alliance burden‑sharing in maritime surveillance and coastal defence. SeaGuardians will extend Germany’s reach across the shallow, congested Baltic and into the North Atlantic approaches, but their value will depend on sensor quality, data‑sharing arrangements and routine coordination with NATO maritime patrol assets. The programme strengthens surveillance and deterrence but does not eliminate the need for investments in ASW-capable surface ships, submarines and integrated undersea sensors.