Defense: Högl: Modernization of the Bundeswehr too slow

defense
Högl: Modernization of the Bundeswehr too slow

Eva Högl (SPD), Defense Commissioner of the German Bundestag, recorded during an interview with the dpa German Press Agency. photo

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

The Bundeswehr is to be modernized, and there is actually a lot of money available for this. According to the assessment of the military commissioner Eva Högl, the processes are still far too sluggish.

In the opinion of the Bundestag Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, the planned modernization of the Bundeswehr is not progressing fast enough. The SPD politician pointed out on Saturday on Deutschlandfunk that Russia’s war against Ukraine and the situation of the Bundeswehr required modernization. There is also enough money and a majority in the Bundestag and society. “That’s why unfortunately it’s not going fast enough.”

At the end of February, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced a special pot of 100 billion euros in the Bundestag after the Russian attack on the neighboring country to modernize the Bundeswehr. The current procedures and processes are too sluggish and do not fit the term “a turning point,” said Högl. The money cannot be invested with the previous procurement structures. It has to be fundamentally rethought.

The Bundeswehr currently has less material than before the start of the war because a lot has gone to Ukraine, said the military commissioner. The material situation of the troops is currently worse. Högl also criticized the slow procurement of new ammunition and the condition of the barracks. The “turning point in time” has not yet arrived here. Overall, the soldiers must feel that something is changing. “There must be really noticeable improvements.”

dpa

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