[Skybird]

A draft list for what the military will/should get with the additional money rain. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:



New fighter jets, modern warships, extensive modernization and digitization of the armed forces - all of this is to be financed in the coming years from an extraordinary special fund that the Bundestag and Bundesrat intend to approve as early as next Friday. However, there are no details or even a conceptual plan for the future equipment of the armed forces.

After taking office, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had suspended a comprehensive modernization project of her predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), but in the past six months she has failed to formulate her own ideas or even to present a coherent plan for the future armed forces. Two days before the Bundestag is now to decide on the largest and most expensive investment project in the history of the Federal Republic as part of a change of era, neither the members of parliament nor the public have a conceptual presentation from the federal government on national and alliance defense.

Instead, individual projects have been compiled in the ministry and in the branches of the armed forces, to which defense, budget and economic policymakers have each added their own projects, some of which have regional policy implications. According to the available data, therefore, this is a hodgepodge of acquisitions, most of which had long since been decided but not financed. For example, shortly before the election, the Bundestag, with majorities from the CDU/CSU and SPD, had approved orders worth more than seven billion euros, but most of these were not backed by budget funds.

Since the "special fund," announced at the end of February by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), is accompanied by a so-called "economic plan," the public can now see from lists drawn up by the budget committee what spending is planned for the coming years. The list envisages around 41 billion euros for the air force, 19 billion for the navy, the army is to receive around 16.5 billion, and a further 20 billion is planned for digitization projects that will benefit all branches of the armed forces.

In addition to military requirements, the list also represents economic interests and the need to accommodate the opposition in the negotiations. In contrast to what has long been suspected, ammunition purchases are almost entirely absent. They are to be financed from the current regular budget. It is also not clear what system the list follows.

At the top of the list is the aircraft industry, with Airbus, a company with considerable production capacity in Bavaria and traditionally strong support from the CSU, in first place. Accordingly, the development and purchase of Eurofighters with electronic warfare capability is planned first and foremost. According to earlier plans, this billion-euro contract was to be awarded to American industry. After a revision, probably decided in the Chancellor's Office, the new German government had already decided otherwise a few months ago. The assets are also to be used to purchase American F-35 fighter aircraft, the most modern currently available.

As yet unfunded, but already recognized for several years as a potentially lethal shortfall, is the modernization of ground-based air defense and especially air defense. This was decommissioned as a weapon category in 2012 under Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) at the Army. The planned projects also include some 60 new transport helicopters to replace the existing and worn-out fleet of CH-53 helicopters from the 1970s.

There are also plans to acquire light support helicopters for the Army, aircraft for electronic maritime reconnaissance and other various early warning and reconnaissance systems. The list of materials also includes the project for a joint Franco-German combat aircraft of the future (FCAS), which has been very quiet recently due to internal disputes.

Financially not decisive, but militarily necessary and politically finally pushed through after years of blockade by the SPD is the arming of the Heron TP drones in the Bundeswehr. As the short war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the summer of 2020 and now even more so the Ukrainian defensive struggle against the Russian invaders showed, these weapons have become decisive means of successful warfare. Due to a morally charged discussion, in particular by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, Germany had so far refrained from equipping its soldiers with

The Bundeswehr is also currently hardly able to defend itself against hostile drone attacks. This is set to change. The air force chapter of the special fund also includes the further expansion of space surveillance and an associated situation center. Overall, the air force projects account for about 40 percent of the total package.

For the Navy, which is to receive 19 billion euros from the special fund, the main projects are modernized corvettes and at least one additional F126 frigate. This is a combat ship that is to supplement the 125 frigates that have been languishing in the introductory phase for years. These are intended more for peacekeeping missions in distant waters than for high-intensity combat with a maritime counterforce in the Baltic Sea. Conversion of the Baden-Württemberg-class peacetime frigates, unit price around 900 million euros, is unlikely to be considered. Like other armament projects of recent years, they could prove to be an expensive mistake. In addition, modern anti-ship missiles (FNSM) will be procured, which can sink large warships at low cost, as recently demonstrated by Ukraine using the Russian Moskva as an example.

They are an interesting alternative to expensive ships, especially in the comparatively small Baltic Sea. Estonia, for example, does not have a large navy of its own, but has ordered and received such anti-ship missiles for some time. Also planned, according to the list of materials from the budget committee, are the acquisition of anti-aircraft missiles for submarines, underwater sonars and the German-Norwegian submarine U212 CD. Each is expected to cost about a billion. The project has been in the planning stages for five years; Norway would like to buy four of the boats, Germany two so far. But there has been a lack of money to do so.

Finally, the Navy has planned to purchase multi-purpose combat boats, which are small, heavily powered and extremely maneuverable boats. They are under 20 meters long and can accommodate, for example, 20 soldiers of the naval battalion. For years, the Navy has been trying in vain to acquire such boats, of which more than 130 exist under the type designation CB90 in the Swedish Navy, for example.

The Army also has long lists of deficiencies and wants to close at least some of the gaps in the land forces from the 100-billion-euro budget. Numerous individual projects are being presented to the budget committee. However, neither the Army nor Minister Lambrecht have specified how many brigades or divisions are to be equipped with the equipment and by when.

The procurement projects indicate that Army Chief of Staff Alfons Mais will probably continue to pursue the goal of establishing a "medium forces" brigade. This combat unit is to be based on the American model and concentrate on armored and armed wheeled vehicles that, unlike the tank and armored infantry battalions with their heavy tracked vehicles, can be deployed quickly.

The material for such a force of about 5,000 men currently does not exist, nor do sufficient tanks and armored personnel carriers for the Army's existing eight brigades. Accordingly, for the land forces, in addition to new infantry fighting vehicles, vehicles designated as "heavy weapon carriers infantry" are to be ordered. According to experts, this includes the Boxer armored transport vehicle, which will then be equipped by Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann with the same automatic cannon as the Puma infantry fighting vehicle and designated as a "wheeled infantry fighting vehicle.

In addition, there will be new acquisitions or retrofit programs for the Army's approximately 300 ill-reputed Puma. A successor to the Fuchs armored transport vehicle is also on the wish list. Experts are puzzling over what is meant by this, because the Army already has a passable vehicle in the form of the Boxer model. Tracked vehicles that can drive in or over snow and armored vehicles that are flown in the Air Force's A400M transporter, for example, are also on the Army's list.

The planned acquisitions for digitization are very expensive and very complicated. In the current draft economic plan, they alone account for around twenty billion euros. Of this amount, the project "Digitization of Land-Based Operations," which has been jolting for years, is to be advanced, and command posts, radios and satellite communications are to be procured. The procurement of PRC-117G radios is one of those things that had long been projected but apparently not funded in sufficient numbers. Earlier reports had stated that the Bundeswehr had to have thousands of old-style analog radios rebuilt for its vehicles because of inadequate digitization, investing about a billion euros in technology from the 1960s.

What is conspicuous about the list, apart from the absence of any figures and prices, is the clear weighting to the detriment of the Army, even if it is consoled by the fact that some projects, such as the personal equipment package (2.4 billion euros), or the helicopter purchases and ground-based air defense, would predominantly benefit the land forces.

Nevertheless, the aircraft industry, which is active in CSU-ruled Bavaria, and the shipyards on the coast, which are always in dire straits, are apparently receiving particularly lavish benefits. The air force and the numerically small navy receive a total of 60 billion euros, more than three times as much as the army, although two thirds of all soldiers serve in the land forces with around 66,000 people and the army would probably have to bear the brunt of the battle in the event of war. Moreover, in the event of tension on NATO's eastern flank, U.S. fighter aircraft and allied fleets would be much quicker to mobilize than heavily armed land forces. There is currently no military justification for the currently planned weighting, for example by the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Eberhard Zorn.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)