The Russian invasion of Ukraine has given a historic turn to Germany's defense policy, which will increase its military spending to face a new world security scenario for which its armed forces are not well equipped. The war that has been waged on Ukrainian soil for three months and ten days has highlighted the serious shortcomings of the Bundeswehr (land, sea and air forces), for the modernization of which a special fund of 100,000 million euros has been created in a hurry. –via indebtedness– in the budgets of this same year.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced this fund at an extraordinary session in the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) on February 27, that is, three days after the start of the Russian invasion. In that speech, Scholz also announced that the annual investment in defense will grow to more than 2% of GDP, in line with the objective demanded by NATO from member countries. And this week, his tripartite government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals agreed with the conservative opposition for parliamentary approval of the 100,000 million fund.
"Now there is a public discussion about the lack of financing of the Bundeswehr, but within the armed forces and in academic circles it is a debate that has lasted for years," recalls Ana Soliz de Stange, a political scientist at the University of the Armed Forces in Hamburg. It is not information that was not known; it was known, but it was not urgent for anyone. The war in Ukraine has accelerated everything.”
Since the end of the cold war and the reunification of Germany, the Bundeswehr's human capital has more than halved. In 1989, the armed forces had half a million soldiers (there was still compulsory military service for men, which was suspended in 2011). Now there are 184,000 professional soldiers, men and women. Your equipment has aged, or not enough has been purchased or manufactured.
The situation, although not new, is striking coming from a country like Germany, the leading economy in Europe. On April 27, two months into the war, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht revealed to the Bundestag that of the Bundeswehr's 350 Puma tanks, only 150 are operational, and of its 51 Tiger combat helicopters they can be used only nine. These are more embarrassing figures than those that had circulated until then.
In practice, the German army is short of basic equipment: from bulletproof vests to uniforms and footwear, from assault rifles and ammunition to night vision goggles, from telecommunications systems to tanks, trucks, planes and helicopters.
There are two flagrant examples cited by Eva Högl, parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr. The air force had to rent civilian helicopters for its military's flight training; and the naval commandos and divers of the Eckernförde base, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, have not had a swimming pool for ten years, so they must travel kilometers to go to train. The parliamentary commissioner publishes an annual report on the state of the Bundeswehr; this year's was March 15.
Some reasons for the deterioration of the army are attributable to the weight of the German history of the 20th century with Nazi militarist expansionism. “The Bundeswehr was not created until 1955 and has been very limited by the Constitution itself, which has marked how much could be invested and what could be done with these armed forces. And military spending was reduced, because in addition a large part of German society did not support it -Soliz de Stange clarifies-. After reunification, that historical backpack remained in German thought, which is also abroad, because also outside of here, in matters of weapons and Germany, the first thing that comes to mind is the German historical past”.
But there are other reasons for the neglect that have more to do with Western geopolitics, which did not foresee a war in Europe. “Since 9/11, the last two decades have focused on the needs for small-scale expeditionary operations, like Afghanistan, and those for deployment without fighting in a real war; and Germany has not been the only country to do so,” says Franz-Stefan Gady, a researcher at the Berlin office of the British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
“The first wake-up call was in 2014 with the Russian military intervention in Donbass, but the European countries did not make the necessary adjustments in their armies – Gady continues -. The war in Ukraine is the second wake-up call; everyone has woken up, and particularly Germany, because their army lacks basic equipment.” Now, in an accelerated way, the country has to run to solve the deficiencies.
