Posted on 04/29/2018 12:20:22 PM PDT by Olog-hai
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has put in a request for an increase to the military budget of €12 billion ($14.6 billion) over the current term of parliament, an amount greatly in excess of present budget plans, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Bild am Sonntag said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had so far foreseen an increase in defense spending of just €5.5 billion over the four years to 2021. The Defense Ministry had already criticized Scholz’s plan on Friday as “inadequate in view of the huge accumulated needs and required modernization, particularly in the medium term.”
According to the paper, von der Leyen will threaten to stop at least one international armaments project scheduled for 2019 if the defense budget is not given a considerable boost. The first to go would be a planned submarine deal with Norway, followed by the purchase of six C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, according to Bild.
Germany’s defense budget in 2017 was around €37 billion and is expected to reach €39 billion in 2018. Although that represents the ninth-highest defense budget in the world, it still falls far short of the 2 percent of national GDP that NATO would like to see. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Part of this story which is rarely told in any forum (even in Germany)....they’ve spent a decade putting just about every single weapon system (tanks, aircraft, helicopters, ships, subs, etc) into a limited operational status...mostly by marginalizing the logistical path. So when something breaks, there’s warehouse with parts there, and the item stays broke for days to weeks. If anything requirement did occur, it’s a 50-50 shot if the system could go onto the mission required, or perform to the level necessary.
I think the leadership (from all German parties) have known what they were doing and intentionally building a force which will never deploy. It’s not a recent thing...it’s at least a decade this attitude has been going on.
Well if hostilities were to ever break out, in lieu of an actual war , why don’t they just drop these ladies in a ring with the Russian. Who ever comes out wins...
I guess the Germans would have been better off keeping their Jews. I have long thought that if the Third Reich would have incorporated Jews in the Reich, and used the talents of their Jewish people, the Reich may well have lasted a thousand year.
Silly thought I know.
Interesting that that most of their equipment here is not operational.
Leopard 2 tanks: 105 of 224
Navy frigates: 5 of 13
Limited number of weapons in German military ready for action: report
On a side note; there will never be eough money for defense departments for some folks and for others any amount is too much.
People who have sons who will do the fighting tend to be more concerned about military readiness.
I won’t disagree on that. Time has shown that pacifism leads to war.
All the iterations of the Reich were about antisemitism to some degree. Even worse, the Third one was about totalitarian socialism, which is inherently antisemitic anyhow.
Fixing broken stuff is good. Building the sustainment chain is better. The Airbus A400M program makes the F-35 program look good. German news outlets went nutso when Bundeswehr A400Ms were NMC to bring troops back from Mali.
But all this wonderful gear requires people with sufficient training, disposition, and will to use it. That’s the €12 billion question — can Germany find the people, or not?
Never say “never deploy”.
He’s definitely hitting all four...Would bet that NATO conferences are pretty wild with the four of them demonstrating that a horse isn’t the only thing he gets to ride whenever he takes his shirt off...
Training and the ability to learn at that level. Are all these new immigrants smart enough to do the work. How many new innovations have you seen come out of the Arab world?
Why? I cannot see the slightest reason for Germany to have a military anymore. They have been the bane of Europe as long as they have existed. And at this point, they face no invasion threat EXCEPT for the one they are importing as fast as they can.
Time to start winding them down in the foreign policy arena.
“Time has shown that pacifism leads to war.”
That has never, even once been a problem for Germany. They have never once faced a menace due to their pacifism. There is an exception for every rule. Germany has no business with a military beyond a basic constabulary force to control moslems and to deal with terrorism. They also need something like our coast guard. No surface combatants or subs. Just patrol boats and rescue type equipment.
And in the real world, does anyone ever see Germany fighting a foreign war? And is anyone ever going to invade Germany?
Shut it down.
It’s never about the threat of invasion. They want to be able to intervene anywhere in the world to protect what they see as their “economic interests”. Looks to me like a pretext for other ambitions.
I was actually responding to post 6.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.