Bundeswehr
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German Federal Ministry of Defense
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Main article: Germany
Ministry of Defence
Department of Arms and IT
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2024
Plan to return mandatory conscription due to military shortage
By May 2024, Germany realized the unrealistic nature of its plans to increase the size of the Bundeswehr and plans to implement them by returning the mandatory military draft, canceled back in 2011.
One of the lobbyists for this proposal is Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. According to media publications, several reform options are envisaged, which in total boil down to the introduction of a year of conscription for men over 18 years old.
At the same time, journalists claim that the proposal will face resistance from the ruling "traffic light coalition" led by Olaf Scholz. However, at the same time, they note that there are no alternatives to maintaining the combat effectiveness of the Bundeswehr in the conditions of an aging population and a lack of volunteers.
Tens of thousands of US military remain stationed in the country
2023: Germans do not want to defend their homeland in the event of war. There are 183 thousand servicemen left
Even when attacking Germany, about one in ten Germans is ready to serve in the army. Such data follows from a survey by the dpa agency in February 2023.
In the event of war, only 5% of German citizens intend to volunteer, another 6% will wait for conscription. At the same time, almost every fourth (24%) said that he would simply leave the country.
In Germany, military service is not popular: there is an increase in refuseniks from service, and in the Bundeswehr there is a severe shortage of personnel.
At the beginning of 2023, the former head of the German Defense Ministry, Christina Lambrecht , said that the department's plans to increase the number of troops to 203 thousand in 2025 would not be achieved. As of February 2023, 183 thousand soldiers serve in the German army. Among the main reasons for this is the demographic decline and unpopularity of military service.
In modern Germany, steeped in the ideas of pacifism and liberal democracy, the army has been ostracized for a long time. Mainly due to suspicions of a desire to organize a military coup and plunge the country into the abyss of a new brown dictatorship.
In addition, any qualified personnel who have their own opinion and an adequate idea of what military service means have been purposefully removed from its ranks for a long time. And how can it be otherwise if the boys who are at school when asked what they want to become answer: "officer," are often sent under the supervision of a school psychologist, as potentially prone to violence.
For most soldiers entering service under a contract, the army is a stable job from a reliable employer (state) with a social package and medical insurance. There is a very low educational qualification and quite understandable duties that do not require ultra-high mental or physical abilities from recruits.
As a rule, there is no sense from soldiers who choose army service for opportunistic reasons as from combat units. They easily submit a resignation report for reasons of conscience, only on the horizon does the prospect of participating in something more serious than sweeping the parade ground loom.
Therefore, if in 2021 [1] a total of 201 applications for refusal of military service were registered, then in 2022 - already 951. It seems that the figure is small, but it is almost a fivefold increase in just a year.
As a rule, the real problems facing the Bundeswehr have little in common with the ideas of defense ministers in skirts that have been at the head of the FRG military department for 12 years. They were more concerned about the presence in the BMP of hatches of sufficient size for a pregnant driver to squeeze there.
At the same time, the troops hunted for imaginary right-wing extremists and destroyed combat capability through chronic underfunding. So, under Ursul von der Leyen (she was the head of the defense department for six years), only two tank battalions were ready for battle in the Bundeswehr, and only six submarines were able to leave the docks on their own.
Society sadly looks at the German army, which has long been in the position of an unloved child in its native country, and makes its own disappointing conclusions, simultaneously losing the remnants of morale. And these sentiments were reflected in the survey for the dpa agency.
For a country in which, 150 years ago, for the highest valor and happiness, it was revered to die for the Fatherland on the battlefield, it is simply a murderous small number of those who are ready to serve.
2022:189 thousand troops
With the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany in 1990, the country reduced its armed forces from half a million soldiers in 1990 to 189,000 in 2022.
US nuclear missiles
2023:15 hydrogen bombs B-61
2022
NAVAL FORCES
Main article: German Navy
Military equipment
Armament of the ground forces
2024: Plans for the supply of 123 tanks, 22 self-propelled guns, 1,508 airborne assault vehicles and other weapons
Realizing the renewed relevance of infantry, the Bundeswehr in 2024 is increasing the capabilities of the ground forces:
- 22 PzH 2000 self-propelled guns (18.4 million each, 2025-2026),
- 57 70-ton tractors (894 thousand each, 2024),
- 123 Leopard 2 A8 tanks (29.2 million each),
- 1508 light airborne assault vehicles Caracal (576 thousand each, start of deliveries 2025),
- 13 LUNA NG/HUSAR UAVs (18.3 million each, since 2025),
- 50 MBM Dingo 2 A 4.1 (3 million each, from 2026),
- 16 thousand IPV MIKRON-D,
- 30 thousand ballistic headphones (2.7 thousand each, 2024),
- 123 BBM Boxer (CRV) (15.7 million each, up to 2030),
- more than 1.5 thousand 15 tons of trucks (2024),
- 100 SUVs (through 2027),
- uniforms (6.8 billion, 2025),
- 188.7 thousand assault rifles G95A1 (1.7 thousand each, 2024),
- 193 BMP Puma (5.9 million each, through 2029),
- 367 all-terrain vehicles BvS 10 (2.8 million each, 2025-2028),
- 3 thousand portable and 500 car radio stations UHF E-Lynx (2024),
- 230 protected transport machines (GTF) (853 thousand each, 2025-2027).
2023:619 Leopard tanks in service
2018:215 tanks
Fighter aircrafts
2024: Delivery plan for 35 F-35A fighters and 102 helicopters
According to the plans of 2024, the German air force will be replenished mainly with imported samples:
- 35 F-35A fighters (237.1 million each, 2026-2029),
- 60 CH-47F helicopters (116.3 million each, 2027-2033),
- 62 H145M helicopters (42 million each, until 2028),
- 274 Brimstone 3 V-Z missiles (1.3 million each, until 2028).
2019:92 fighters
AIR DEFENCE
2024: Large-scale air defense modernization
Significant efforts in Germany are being made in 2024 to strengthen the air defense system:
- 8 Patriot air defense system (350 million euros each. each, delivery until 2029) and 600 anti-aircraft guided missiles to them (6 million each, 2027-2033, the contract in 2024 already envisaged the purchase of 100 missiles of 2 million each),
- 6 Iris-T SLM air defense systems (158.3 million each, 2024), 120 IRIS-T AIM-2000 V-V missiles (900 thousand each, until 2026),
- the development of a ground-based air defense system (1.23 billion, until 2028),
- 19 ZSU Skyrenger (34.1 million each, 2026-2028),
- AMRAAM class SD missiles (178. million),
- 506 Stinger MANPADS (780.6 thousand each, 2026-2029),
- 1 Arrow 3 air defense system (4 billion, 2025-2030).
2017
History
2024: Appointment of Third Reich officers as heroes of military valor for the Bundeswehr
In August 2024, the German Defense Ministry presented the heroes of the past for its servicemen: they were officially several Wehrmacht officers who were members of the SS and NSDAP.
The representative of the German defense department Arne Collats confirmed this information, noting that their personalities should serve as an example of military valor for the Bundeswehr. According to him, the list includes Wehrmacht officers who, after the fall of the Third Reich, "distanced themselves from their past and participated in the construction of the Bundeswehr."
The "examples for the younger generation" include:
- Brigadier General Heinz Karst, awarded the Iron Cross of the 1st degree on the Eastern Front;
- Colonel Erich Hartmann - is considered "the most productive fighter pilot in the entire history of aviation" (352 air victories, 344 of which over Soviet aircraft);
- Rear Admiral Erich Topp is "one of the most successful submariners of World War II," as well as a member of the SS. This fact did not prevent him, after the war, from building a career already in the German Navy, receiving the cross "For Merit to the Federal Republic of Germany" and serving as a headquarters officer in the NATO military committee in Washington.
2023
Plan for the deployment of 4800 German military in the Baltic countries
In December 2023 Germany Lithuania , and signed a plan to deploy a permanent brigade of German troops of about 4,800 in the Baltic states over the next four years to strengthen defenses on the NATO eastern flank of the alliance.
Until 2027, approximately 4.8 thousand German troops and another 200 civilian employees are deployed to the areas of the Rudninkai and Rukle training ground (near the borders with the Russian Federation and Belarus). The formation of the brigade will begin in the second quarter of 2024.
It is assumed that it will be formed from three battalions: the 203rd tank in North Rhine-Westphalia, the 122nd armored infantry from Bavaria and from the battalion combat group of the NATO Advanced Presence Forces under the command of Germany. They have been deployed in Lithuania since 2017 with a number of 1.5 thousand soldiers.
The main units will be transferred in 2025-2026, and by 2027th the brigade "must reach full combat readiness."
The Bundeswehr has never deployed so many military personnel in other countries on a permanent basis before, so this is also an important political step for the authorities. Berlin They look at these plans as an opportunity to show their significant military role on the eastern flank of NATO, despite the fact that for this the Germans will have to exert considerable strain on both the army and the budget.
Lithuania has already stated that they have no money to finance the German military, and in Berlin they agreed on budget plans for 2024. At the same time, the line of additional, emergency costs in the amount of 100 billion euros included the purchase of equipment for replenishing stocks after its transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
69% of the population supports NATO
Main article: NATO
2022: Constitutional amendments to create a €100 billion defence fund for the Bundeswehr
In May 2022, the German authorities decided to amend the country's constitution to allow the creation of a special credit defense fund in the amount of €100 billion.
The German armed forces are understaffed and military personnel at this time often complain of malfunctions, and breakdowns of tanks, aircraft, and warships.
Germany will modernize its armed forces (Bundeswehr) with a special fund of €100 billion, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised three months ago. This decision was made as a direct result of the conflict in Ukraine.
An agreement reached on 29 May between the government of the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals and the conservative opposition would allow these emergency defence spending to go through a parliamentary process that requires a two-thirds majority in both the Bundestag (lower house) and the Bundesrat (upper house). Reason: to introduce this law on the financing of the Bundeswehr, it is necessary to amend the constitution, due to the rule prohibiting spending more from the budget than it receives.
Scholz announced this plan on February 27 in the Bundestag, three days after the start of the Russian military organization in Ukraine. In that speech, he also announced an increase in annual defense spending of more than 2 percent of GDP, in line with the military spending target that NATO requires of member states. "NATO's goal of 2% will be achieved in a few years," the parties said after signing the agreement.
100 billion will go exclusively to the Bundeswehr, as demanded by the conservative bloc. The Greens wanted to use the same fund to strengthen cyber defenses, but a decision was made to fund cyber defenses from the regular budget.
"We have determined what we need to ensure national and allied defense in the future, and this really applies to the entire Bundeswehr: night vision devices, radio equipment, as well as heavy helicopters," Defense Minister Kristina Lambrecht said in a statement.
According to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, by enshrining these costs in the constitution, we emphasize the "special exceptional nature" of these costs for the needs of the Bundeswehr. This is important for fighting inflation.
2019: Launch of joint military internet with the Netherlands
At the end of June 2019 Germany Netherlands , the authorities agreed to create the first joint military in history. Internet The agreement was signed in Brussels (Belgium), where a meeting of representatives of the defense departments of the countries was held. NATO More. here
2018: German intelligence spied on international organisations in Austria
The Federal Intelligence Service Germany (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) carried out mass espionage on the communication networks of the Austrian government, diplomatic missions and headquarters of international organizations in Vienna, Profil reported in 2018[1]
According to the magazine, the special service from 1999 to 2006 carried out surveillance on the basis of the so-called selectors - search criteria, including names, numbers of landline and cell phones, faxes and e-mail. In particular, German intelligence was interested in the department of the Federal Chancellor of Austria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Austrian Interpol, the Chamber of Economics of Austria, a number of universities and non-governmental organizations.
The espionage campaign also extended to several dozen embassies and international organizations, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. The special service was also interested in companies with a head office in Austria, including Austrian banks, military and metallurgical industries. In total, there were about 2 thousand objects in the field of view of BND.
According to the head of the Bundestag Intelligence Control Committee (PKG) Armin Schuster, PKG will check reports of surveillance in Austria, in particular, whether it is a new campaign or means intelligence activities, which became known back in 2015. The first results of the audit will be released at the end of next week, said Schuster.
1975
1956: Berlin remains a demilitarized city and attracts those who do not want to serve in the Bundeswehr
West Berlin remains all the way to German reunification as a demilitarized city - and a city from which they are not called up for military service. Therefore, it is West Berlin that becomes the main city of youth protests - young people who do not want to serve in the new army are moving here en masse.
1955: The emergence of the Bundeswehr and joining NATO
The conditions for the surrender of Germany following the results of World War II in 1945 provide for the complete demilitarization of all parts of the country, but with the outbreak of the Cold War, this part of the treaty gradually loses force. In 1950, Adenauer's secret negotiations with the US military administration on the armed forces of West Germany began. Officially, the Bundeswehr appears in November 1955 (before that, armed police and border troops appear) - simultaneously with the entry of Germany into NATO.
Privates in the new army serve on conscription, but the officer corps almost entirely consists of the military of the previous era: out of 14,900 Bundeswehr officers who were in the army service in 1959, 12,360 received officer titles back in the Third Reich and during the Weimar Republic. 300 of them served in the Waffen SS.
From 1950 to 1955, a secret armed "Schneetz Group" was operating on the territory of Germany, consisting of 2,000 former Wehrmacht and SS officers - after the founding of the Bundeswehr, the founder of the group, Colonel-General Albert Schnets, is appointed to the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of Germany.
1945: World War II defeat
Main article: World War II
1918: World War I defeat
Main article: World War I
1912
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