Germany to Spend $535Mln on Expansion of Holzdorf Air Base - Military

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Germany is in the process of remaking its eastern Holzdorf military air base, with 500 million euros ($535 million) expected to be spent on the facility's expansion, Col. Christian Guntsch said on Wednesday.

"Over 500 [million euros] will be spent on new infrastructure here [at Holzdorf military base] — hangars, maintenance bays and new flight operations areas," Guntsch, who is responsible for the expansion plan, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying.

The facility, which previously used to be one of the Warsaw Pact nations' strategic outposts in East Germany, today is sought to be turned into NATO's major stronghold against Russia, the newspaper reported.

As part of the renewal, the base's runway will be expanded so that it could receive a NATO plane of any type and size, the report said. Moreover, the facility is expected to receive the Arrow air defense systems from Israel and 60 new Chinook heavy-lift helicopters soon to replace the Sikorsky CH-53 choppers, which have been in service since 1972, the newspaper reported.

Both the choppers and the air-defense systems will be financed from the German government's fund worth 100 billion euros that was approved in June 2022, the report said. However, concerns have already risen over what will happen in 2027, once the fund is exhausted, the newspaper added.