Germany to approve $11 bln defence orders -source

BERLIN, Dec 13 (Reuters) Germany's parliamentary budget committee will likely approve spending of around eight billion euros (10.62 billion dollars) on defence projects, mostly led by IBM and Siemens, a source close to the committee said.

Siemens' information technology unit SBS and IBM will be overseeing around 7.2 billion euros of contracts, the source said today, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The two companies are expected to install around 140,000 personal computers, 700 mainframe computers and thousands of telephones for the German armed forces, the source added.

The committee is expected to make a decision later today.

A green light from the committee would make the spending plans a virtual certainty.

The government also plans to buy 272 armoured ''Boxer'' transport vehicles for 891 million euros, the source said.

Rheinmetall, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Dutch firm Stork are involved in the vehicle's development.

''One can assume that both projects will be approved,'' the source told Reuters.

Die Welt newspaper cited committee sources as saying that Germany was set to delay planned helicopter purchases in which European defence group EADS is a partner.

These include MH-90 naval helicopters and the second tranche of NH-90 helicopters. All told they would have cost about 2.4 billion euros, the paper said.

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