Status: 04/01/2023 10:49 a.m
Industry lead times and support for Ukraine: Defense Minister Pistorius does not expect to be able to remedy the Bundeswehr’s equipment shortages before 2030. He has clear ideas for the defense budget.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius does not expect the equipment gaps in the Bundeswehr to be closed anytime soon. “We all know that the existing gaps cannot be completely closed by 2030. That’s why we have to set priorities,” said the SPD politician to the “Welt am Sonntag”. One of those priorities was protecting NATO’s eastern flank. “For us, that means first of all building a fully equipped division by 2025 and making an appropriate contribution to the NATO response force.”
“The Bundeswehr has three tasks to fulfill: national and alliance defense as well as international crisis operations. This requires skills, backed by material and personnel,” Pistorius explained, referring to the army’s needs. Weapons deliveries to Ukraine to support the war against Russia have also torn gaps in the Bundeswehr. At the end of January, Pistorius announced that he would be holding talks with the armaments industry.
Pistorius wants to increase the budget by 2025
Pistorius also announced that he wanted to increase the defense budget to two percent of gross domestic product by 2025. By the end of the legislative period, he “would have liked to have established an increased defense budget that would ensure NATO’s two percent target,” he told the newspaper. His “number one priority” until then was that “we have also arrived in the new era in the procurement of weapons and ammunition”.
Because of the increase in the defense budget he is aiming for in 2024, he is “basically confident,” said Pistorius. “We’ll see” whether it will be the required ten billion euros. The negotiations for this were ongoing.
According to NATO information, German defense spending accounted for less than 1.5 percent of economic output last year. According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), Germany will probably not reach the two percent target until 2024 and 2025 – namely when expenditure from the special fund has an impact. From 2026, Germany would probably be below two percent again if the regular defense budget does not increase “by at least five percent” per year.
Ship to be sent to Asia
Pistorius also announced that he would send another ship to the Indo-Pacific region in 2024. At the end of 2021, the frigate “Bayern” was the first German warship in around twenty years to travel there – ports in India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan and South Korea were called at, among others.
It is not just a matter of assuming more European responsibility for security and defense in Europe. “At the same time, we are also challenged when it comes to the freedom of the sea routes and the rule-based order in the Indo-Pacific. That is why we are planning another naval mission to the region for the coming year and an intensification of our partnerships with key countries in the region, such as Japan , Australia, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore.”