Signal No. 156 · Bremerhaven: EUR 1.35 billion in a letter of intent

Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, Andreas Bovenschulte, Bremen's mayor, and Matthias Magnor, chief executive of the port operator BLG, signed a letter of intent at Bremen city hall on Tuesday for the "Deployment Hub Bremerhaven 2031". The defence ministry says it will invest up to EUR 1.35 billion in the port, its hinterland connections, rail links and Bremen airport. Bovenschulte said the money comes from the defence ministry's budget; according to dpa, Bremen adds EUR 200 million, with private investors on top. More than 40 measures are planned to 2031, among them a heavy-load bridge and quays in the Kaiserhafen, with work due to start this year, Bovenschulte said. The port stays civilian; in a defence emergency, Bundeswehr and allied personnel and materiel move through it.

In the letter all parties "affirm that they will provide the capacities and capabilities required to meet NATO's requirements and the needs set out in Operationsplan Deutschland", the national plan for Germany's defence and for allied forces crossing it. The ministry release names no follow-on contract or administrative agreement, and no date for one.

The US Air Force awarded Raytheon in Tucson a sole-source, multi-year contract for production of the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), not to exceed USD 20,699,334,581 and running to June 2033. It was awarded on Friday 25 September and announced on Monday in the Pentagon's contract list. Sixteen foreign customers are named for foreign military sales (FMS); eleven are European: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The others are Australia, Canada, Japan, Kuwait and Taiwan. At award USD 154.3 million of FMS money and USD 85,715 of Air Force funds were obligated. The contracting office is the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. Last Wednesday, 23 September, the Bundestag's budget committee cleared two further German lots of AIM-120 AMRAAM for the F-35A and the Eurofighter. The same announcement added USD 11.2 million to a Lockheed Martin contract for spare radar parts for Lithuania.

Romania's defence ministry said on Tuesday morning that an object, possibly a drone, had fallen overnight on arable land on Insula Mare a Brăilei, near Gropeni in Brăila county, and started a fire; a caller had reported it to the 112 emergency line. In an update it said the drone carried an explosive payload that detonated automatically on impact; the fire was confined to farmland and no one was hurt. Interior ministry and Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) teams secured the site, an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter flew reconnaissance, and the SRI took the fragments for analysis. The ministry: "the Ministry of National Defence's radar systems did not report any unauthorised penetration of national airspace during the past night." No drone type was given.

The Council on Monday identified the first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest, the five the Commission proposed on 3 July: drones and counter-drone systems, integrated maritime and seabed defence, space-based capabilities, federated integrated air and missile defence, and security of the Eastern Flank. The Commission has set aside EUR 325 million of the EUR 1.5 billion European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) for them; with the decision taken, the projects "can now move towards funding", and support may continue under the next long-term budget. On average 18 member states take part in each; Ukraine is in four of the five, and the programme is also open to Norway.

Kristen Michal, Estonia's prime minister, said on Tuesday: "Today we can say with complete certainty that the arson attack on Milrem was an act of sabotage commissioned by the intelligence services of the Russian Federation." The Internal Security Service (KAPO) reached that conclusion on its own intelligence about the fire of 15 August at the Milrem Robotics building in Tallinn; Milrem builds uncrewed ground vehicles, which Ukraine fields. Margo Palloson, KAPO's director-general, called it the first Russian-sponsored attack in Estonia this year that the authorities failed to prevent. Those recruited, she said, are Russian-speaking residents, criminal networks and foreign nationals, paid and often unaware whom they work for. The foreign ministry summoned Russia's chargé d'affaires on Tuesday. Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister: "Together with our allies and partners in Europe and beyond, we will increase pressure on Russia, tighten sanctions, and seek additional ways to restrict the travel of Russian citizens to Europe." Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, called the accusation baseless: "We cannot and will not take such statements seriously."

The three suspects, Latvian citizens arrested in Latvia on 17 and 18 August and handed to Estonia on 17 and 18 September, remain in custody. When they were remanded a week ago the charge was damaging property, with sabotage still under examination.