MBDA, Lockheed hail German decision to buy MEADS missile defense

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - European defense group MBDA and Lockheed Martin Corp confirmed on Tuesday that the German government has decided to buy their MEADS missile defense system instead of an updated Patriot system offered by Raytheon Co.

Germany paid for a quarter of the $4 billion invested by Germany, the United States and Italy to develop the next-generation Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) as a successor to the Patriot air defense systems first fielded in the 1980s.

Germany is the first country to choose the MEADS system, and industry officials say its decision could trigger a similar order from Italy and possibly the Netherlands.

A German government source late on Monday confirmed German and U.S. media reports about the decision, which could be worth up to $4.5 billion for the companies.

MBDA, a consortium that includes Italy's Finmeccanica SpA (Other OTC: FINMF - news) , Airbus Group (Swiss: AIR.SW - news) and Britain's BAE Systems Plc (Other OTC: BAESF - news) , said MEADS would give the German military a powerful state-of-the-art system that can handle current and future threats.

Lockheed, the largest U.S. weapons maker, said in a statement that it was fully committed to the success of Germany's Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem (TVLS) with MBDA.

It said the system was designed to significantly reduce operation and support costs by covering a larger area with less manpower and equipment, and less demand on airlift.

The United States, citing budget cuts, opted out of the system in 2012. Poland recently chose Raytheon's Patriot system instead of MEADS. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Peter Galloway)