# US and Germany Sign Deal to Deepen Defense Industrial Cooperation > German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a joint declaration in Washington aimed at letting German manufacturers produce certain US weapon systems under license, part of a broader push to meet surging NATO demand for arms and equipment. - Source: Berlin Today - Canonical URL: https://berlintoday.eu/article/us-and-germany-sign-deal-to-deepen-defense-industrial-cooperation - Author: Doug Brown - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-09-16T11:38:03.787Z - Updated: 2026-09-16T11:38:03.787Z - Tags: Germany, United States, defense, NATO, Boris Pistorius, Pete Hegseth, military --- German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a joint declaration of intent in Washington, committing both countries to a significant expansion of cooperation between their defense industries. The agreement sets out the political groundwork for German companies to manufacture certain US weapon systems domestically under license rather than relying solely on imports. Hegseth framed the signing as a continuation of an already close relationship, characterizing it as further progress in the two countries' broader effort to work more closely on defense manufacturing. ## Licensing German Production of US Weapons At the center of the agreement is a framework that would allow German manufacturers to produce select US designed weapon systems on German soil under license, rather than each unit being built in the United States and shipped abroad. That arrangement is intended to shorten supply chains, reduce delivery times and give Germany a larger direct role in producing the hardware its own military and allies increasingly need. The declaration lays out clear political parameters for how joint military development, production and license manufacturing between the two countries should proceed, effectively giving defense companies on both sides a formal framework to negotiate specific programs rather than pursuing cooperation deal by deal without an overarching structure. ## Answering NATO's Production Gap The push comes as NATO members face persistent shortfalls in weapons, ammunition and complex military equipment, a gap that has widened since the alliance ramped up support for Ukraine and stepped up its own readiness planning. Leaning more heavily on German manufacturing capacity is intended to help close that gap without requiring the United States to expand its own production lines to meet all of the alliance's needs alone. Germany's defense industry, anchored by established manufacturers with deep engineering expertise, is positioned as a natural partner for this kind of expanded license production, particularly given the country's own recent push to rebuild and modernize its armed forces. ## Why It Matters The agreement reflects a broader shift in how Washington and its European allies are approaching defense industrial policy, moving away from a model centered on US exports toward one that distributes production capacity more widely across NATO members. For Germany, formal license manufacturing access to US weapon systems would mean deeper integration into American defense supply chains and a stronger domestic industrial base tied to alliance wide procurement. For the alliance as a whole, the deal is a concrete step toward addressing a production shortfall that officials have warned could leave NATO under equipped in a prolonged crisis, even as the details of which specific systems will be covered and how quickly production could actually scale up remain to be worked out. --- Originally published by Berlin Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://berlintoday.eu/article/us-and-germany-sign-deal-to-deepen-defense-industrial-cooperation.