At the Defense Committee meeting on the wiretapping scandal, Minister Pistorius defended the Bundeswehr officers. However, it became known that Air Force Inspector Gerhartz also took part in the conversation via an unsecure line.
The Air Force inspector, Ingo Gerhartz, behaved improperly in the Bundeswehr conversation about the delivery of “Taurus” cruise missiles to Ukraine, which was intercepted by Russia. “There was a second participant who dialed in incorrectly, but without any data being leaked,” said Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius after a special meeting of the Bundestag Defense Committee in Berlin. It was Gerhartz.
It had previously been known that another officer had dialed into the conference via an insecure connection. This allowed Russia to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Nevertheless, Pistorius stood in front of the Air Force officers. “I am not willing, I want to make this clear again, to fall for Putin here and to expose my best officers, whether they made a mistake here or not,” said Pistorius. And: “That would be exactly what Vladimir Putin expects from us.” He wanted to wait for further investigations into the incident before deciding on possible personnel consequences. There are currently preliminary disciplinary investigations.
Union wants to question Scholz
A Russian intelligence service had intercepted a conference call between four high-ranking Air Force officers. They had discussed operational scenarios for the German cruise missile if the “Taurus” were to be delivered to Ukraine.
The defense policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Florian Hahn, said after the meeting that there were still unanswered questions. It must also be clarified why Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), contrary to the opinion of the Bundeswehr experts, continues to argue that Germany will become a war party with the Taurus delivery, he said before the meeting of the Defense Committee. According to the intercepted conversation, the Air Force “explicitly ruled out” the possibility that German soldiers would have to be sent to Ukraine for the “Taurus” delivery. It is therefore necessary to also speak to Scholz and the air force inspector about the wiretapping affair, said Hahn.
Greens bring ring exchange into play again
When it comes to the question of the possible delivery of cruise missiles, differences of opinion in the traffic light coalition are becoming increasingly clear. After Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) described a so-called ring swap, in which Germany could give “Taurus” missiles to Great Britain and London would deliver additional “Storm Shadow” missiles to Ukraine, as an “option”, her party leader commented Omid Nouripour similarly: This could be “an option for how we can break the knot,” he said.
What kind of weapon system is the Taurus cruise missile?
The “Taurus” cruise missile is around five meters long and weighs almost 1,400 kilograms. It is equipped with its own engine and several navigation systems that enable autonomous low-level flight through enemy territory. This means that the cruise missiles can be fired from fighter aircraft from a safe distance during war and can hit and destroy targets up to 500 kilometers away.
Since the cruise missiles fly particularly low and are relatively small, they are difficult to hit by enemy air defenses. The Bundeswehr has had the “Taurus” weapon system since 2005. It can be used with the “Tornado” and “Eurofighter” fighter aircraft. The manufacturer is a subsidiary of the defense company MBDA.
The “Taurus” cruise missile is the German-Swedish counterpart to the British-French cruise missiles “Storm Shadow” and “Scalp”, which were developed in parallel.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil rejected this. He defended in ARD morning magazine Scholz also said no to Taurus deliveries to Ukraine and demanded that the European partners should concentrate on finally producing and delivering more ammunition. Klingbeil said: “This is what everyone should focus on and not other debates.”
Pistorius said in the evening that he did not see a solution in exchanging rings. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit simply said on the question of ring exchange: “There is no new status.” Scholz made a decision about the Taurus.