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the german way for massive defense spending....

The center-right and center-left parties seeking to form Germany's new government have said they will invest "whatever it takes" in Germany's defenses. That could include modernizing the Bundeswehr on a massive scale. But what would that mean in detail?

 

How the Bundeswehr will spend hundreds of billions of euros
Nina Werkhäuser
Germany has paved the way for massive defense spending. What does the Bundeswehr need most urgently?

 

Infrastructure

The Bundeswehr owns around 1,500 properties across Germany, but many of these are in "a disastrous state," Eva Högl, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, wrote in her annual report for 2024.

The Südpfalz barracks in Germersheim, for example, had mold in the soldiers' quarters, with "water damage and plaster peeling off the walls everywhere," she said following a visit there. In total, an estimated at €67 billion ($72 billion) would be needed to renovate all barracks in the country.

Personnel

Personnel shortage is one of the German military's biggest concerns. It currently has around 182,000 soldiers in its ranks. The Defense Ministry's target is 203,000, but recruitment is clearly a problem,

The number of applications increased significantly in 2024. However, some one in four new recruits left the Bundeswehr again within only six months.

The reintroduction of compulsory military service, which was suspended in 2011, is also currently being discussed, but this would entail considerable costs, as the Bundeswehr lacks sufficient infrastructure for housing and training conscripts.

Weapons systems

Some of the Bundeswehr's equipment is outdated. Since the end of the Cold War, only the essentials have been procured, and much material had simply been patched up until the spare parts ran out.

This has changed since the Bundeswehr was provided with a special fund of €100 billion following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This money is being used to plug the biggest holes, but the Bundeswehr is still a long way from being fully equipped.

The air force is currently receiving 35 F-35 fighter jets from US manufacturer Lockheed Martin to replace the outdated Tornado fighter jets from the 1980s. This alone will cost more than €8 billion. The government is also in the middle of buying 60 new Boeing CH-47 heavy transport helicopters.

Meanwhile, the navy is to receive additional frigates, submarines, and P8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and the army is expected to introduce the world's most modern main battle tank, the Leopard 2A8, this summer. The old Marder infantry fighting vehicle will be replaced by the modern Puma.

There is also an urgent need for action in air defense — something the Bundeswehr has severely neglected in the past. A combination of several interception systems, including Patriot and IRIS-T, is to protect Germany from air attacks in the future.

Some of the equipment has already been delivered, but the Bundeswehr will have to wait years for everything to arrive.

"It will take seven to eight years for submarines, six years for frigates, 2.5 years for tanks and the same for self-propelled howitzers," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said recently.

 Combat drones

The Bundeswehr operates a number of different reconnaissance drones. Its five Heron TP drones, which are the size of a small aircraft, can be armed.

But the Bundeswehr lacks combat drones, as there are no guidelines and regulations for their employment. Drone technology is developing at a rapid pace. The planning and procurement processes in the Bundeswehr are excruciatingly slow and often take several years.

The Bundeswehr also lacks effective defense systems against drone attacks. Espionage drones have been sighted over Bundeswehr bases recently, so this matter is seen as particularly urgent.

Ammunition

The Bundeswehr has only a relatively small stock of ammunition. After the end of the Cold War, stocks were reduced and production capacities cut. Not only that, the Bundeswehr has transferred a large part of its stocks to Ukraine in the past few years, including 427,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, in the standard 155-millimeter caliber.

The Ukrainian army consumes immense quantities of ammunition on the battlefield, and the German military now wants to stockpile more for itself, ordering artillery ammunition worth around €8.5 billion from the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.

This is the largest order in the company's history, and while the German armaments industry is trying to ramp up its capacities in general, it can't do so overnight.

Digital transformation

The Bundeswehr is also lagging behind when it comes to digitalization. Many officers still find themselves filling out printed forms, and cyber defense urgently needs to be strengthened. In 2024, the Cyber and Information Space Command (CIR) was upgraded to a fourth branch of the armed forces, alongside the army, air force and navy.

"Hybrid attacks are a reality, every day," Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer warned recently. Part of the additional billions will therefore flow into digitalization, including AI applications, new data centers and secure satellite communication.

Lithuania brigade

One of Defense Minister Pistorius' most ambitious projects is to set up a Bundeswehr brigade in Lithuania. Almost 5,000 German soldiers are to be permanently deployed to the Baltic country by 2027, in order to strengthen NATO's eastern flank. This mission is a first for the Bundeswehr. The extra billions will secure this deployment and other German commitments in NATO.

This article was originally written in German.

https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-bundeswehr-will-spend-hundreds-of-billions-of-euros/a-72048164

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

EU ‘rearmament’ plan meets

EU ‘rearmament’ plan meets resistance over debt concerns – Politico
Southern European countries have expressed opposition to a proposal to boost military spending through loans, according to a report

Southern European states have been pushing back against an EU plan to ramp up military spending through loans, amid concerns it could deepen their already heavy debt burdens, Politico reported on Wednesday.

The so-called ‘ReArm Europe Plan’, unveiled this month by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calls for up to €800 billion ($850 billion) in debt and tax breaks for the bloc’s military industrial complex. The proposal includes a €150 billion loan package and an emergency clause to loosen EU fiscal rules.

However, according to unnamed EU diplomats cited in the report, some countries have “serious doubts”about taking on additional debt. France, Italy, and Spain have been reportedly advocating grants – or so-called ‘defense bonds’ – rather than loans.

Such bonds would require joint EU borrowing on capital markets, a move that needs unanimous approval from all 27 member states.

Von der Leyen has so far avoided backing the idea, wary of opposition from fiscally hawkish states like Germany and the Netherlands, who fear it could set a precedent for shared EU debt.

“No Eurobonds,” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said after a recent EU leaders summit.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized the plan’s reliance on national debt, calling the proposed April deadline “a bit too close” and saying “we should have more time [to decide].”

Italy and Spain have also urged a broader definition of military spending exempt from EU fiscal limits. Madrid has proposed including border control, cybersecurity, and infrastructure resilience.

France does not plan to trigger the emergency clause, two EU diplomats said, citing concerns over market reactions and its debt-to-GDP ratio above 110%. Germany is expected to invoke the clause to help fund a €500 billion military expansion but is unlikely to take EU loans since it can raise the money more cheaply on its own.

However, weaker economies have raised concerns that requesting EU loans first could signal financial vulnerability and drive up borrowing costs.

Brussels insists the ‘ReArm’ plan is aimed at countering a “threat” from Russia, an idea Moscow has dismissed as baseless. It also comes amid growing pressure from Washington. US President Donald Trump has distanced himself from supporting Ukraine, while urging the EU to take greater responsibility for its own defense.

https://www.rt.com/news/614819-eu-rearmament-plan-resistance/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

ekstase....

 

Deutschland ist Zurück!

Ricardo Nuno Costa

  A recent report by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) claims that Russia could be ready to wage a ‘full-scale war in Europe within five years’, a document that has caused ecstasy among those eager to sell the ‘Russian danger’ at every opportunity. This, despite the fact that history teaches us that it has always been the other way round, that it has always been Western Europeans who have tried to invade Russia, always without success.

And then there’s the real world. On Tuesday (25 [MARCH]) US Vice President JD Vance warned that the US would take military control of Greenland with or without Copenhagen’s consent, and that he would even travel to the territory as early as Friday to ‘visit the Space Force guards stationed there and check on Greenland’s security’.

But there will be no European military ‘industrial base’, only a US one 

So we have an insignificant Scandinavian kingdom whining about Russian confabulations for the next decade while its Atlantic allies take over its territory without asking permission. Has anyone seen or heard European politicians talking about this? And where is the collective anti-Trump hysteria of recent months? As President Putin said after the US election: You’ll see in a minute that they’re all around Trump again. Any doubts?

Following the bizarre Danish announcement, German intelligence said shortly afterwards that Berlin is already working to prepare the country for a confrontation with Russia by 2030. The return of conscription will be the first step. The second is public spending on rearmament and infrastructure (for military purposes, if you read between the lines) to the tune of 400 billion euros, and a further 100 billion for the ‘climate emergency’, the formula with which Merz, head of BlackRock Deustchland, has decided to buy the vote and do business with the Greens.

‘Deutschland ist zurück!’ (Germany is back!), exclaimed the new chancellor euphorically, a rant that sends shivers down the spine of any good German whenever a ‘leader’ points his guns eastwards.

The new German government’s public spending promises to revive the country’s stagnant economy, but in reality it is based on issuing debt, with all the dangers that entails. It’s only a matter of time before the locomotive grinds to a halt again.

The European Commission, led by another Teuton of the same stock, didn’t want to be left behind, and although Europeans are still paying the heavy bill for the infamous 750 billion euro ‘bazooka’ of the Kovid era, a debt to which Brussels added the Ukrainian adventure, it is now proposing to find another 800 billion (!) for what it has decided to call an ’emergency’. Von der Leyen said that ‘Readiness 2030’ means ‘rearming and developing the capabilities to have a credible deterrent’ and ‘an industrial base that is a strategic advantage’. But there will be no European military ‘industrial base’, only a US one. Yes, the industrial base is that of the evil Trump!

Why the former German Defence minister, who was sacked in 2019 after a scandal broke out involving her in corruption cases worth hundreds of millions of euros, calls the current situation ‘urgent’ for the first time in three years, when Russia and the US are finally negotiating peace, is another question that remains in the air.

Back in Berlin, the new chancellor made it clear that his new government’s geopolitical allegiance will be to Ukraine and Israel. Not a word about the genocide in Gaza, perpetrated with German weapons. Those responsible for foreign and security policy in the CDU/CSU-SPD grand coalition also made a point of explicitly stating that ‘relations with the US remain of the utmost importance’. A subtle way of rejecting Macron’s invitation to make France’s nuclear capacity the European missile defence shield and remain under US control. It remains to be seen at what price Trump wants to negotiate this chapter.

Merz’s late-Keynesian move, which was deliberately approved illegally during the previous government’s term of office and effectively changed the constitution without the Karlsruhe court preventing it, also involves changing the rules and the economic consensus at the European level. The possible political consequences of these economic moves in Germany for the future of Europe and the eurozone, because they are so far-reaching, will be the subject of a future report.

 

https://journal-neo.su/2025/03/28/deutschland-ist-zuruck/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LykGQxMSpmk