Two percent target
Army “unsustainable” – According to media reports, the Bundeswehr cannot fulfill NATO commitments
It was not until March that the Bundestag Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, presented the Bundeswehr’s annual report. Her conclusion: Everything is missing
© Axel Heimken / DPA
According to the agreement with NATO, the defense budget of the Bundeswehr should actually be two percent of gross domestic product. According to reports, this promise can hardly be fulfilled and the army is “unsustainable”.
According to a media report, the Bundeswehr cannot fulfill its NATO commitments and alliance obligations. The operational readiness of the division promised by Germany from 2025 can only be restored “to a limited extent”, reports the Bild newspaper (Tuesday edition), citing a letter from the Inspector of the Army, Alfons Mais, to the Bundeswehr Inspector General. According to the letter, even the concentration of the entire army stocks could not enable full equipment.
According to the report, the operational readiness of the second division, which the Bundeswehr wants to provide from 2027, is “unrealistic”. The division will “not be sufficiently equipped with large equipment in 2027,” the “Bild” newspaper quoted the inspector as saying.
Accordingly, there is even a risk that the entire army’s operational readiness will continue to decline. Without countermeasures, “the army will not be able to sustain itself in high-intensity combat and will only be able to fulfill its obligations to NATO to a limited extent,” Mais is quoted as saying.
Special assets for the Bundeswehr would not suffice
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl (SPD), said when she presented her 2022 annual report in mid-March: “The Bundeswehr has too little of everything.” At the time, she called for a much faster pace of investment. Even the special fund provided by the traffic light coalition is not sufficient for this: “The 100 billion euros alone will not be enough to compensate for all shortfalls, according to estimates by military experts, a total of 300 billion euros would be required for this,” says Eva Högl ( you can read more about this here).
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius does not expect the equipment gaps in the Bundeswehr to be closed anytime soon, which is why he is demanding another twelve billion euros in the upcoming budget from Finance Minister Christian Lindner. “We all know that the existing gaps cannot be completely closed by 2030. That’s why we have to set priorities,” the SPD politician told the “Welt am Sonntag” in April. One of these priorities is the protection of NATO’s eastern flank. “For us, that means building a fully equipped division by 2025 and making an appropriate contribution to NATO’s response force.”
Pictures with a message
When politicians visit the Bundeswehr (it’s also about these pictures)
“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 in view of the high demand of the Bundeswehr. 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.
Sources: Federal Ministry of Defencenews agencies DPA + AFP