Die Welt: NATO is putting pressure on Germany to increase the Bundeswehr by 80,000 people
NATO makes new demands on Germany, writes Die Welt. She is charged with raising defense spending and increasing the size of the army. But no one has any ideas how to achieve this: representatives of the Bundeswehr consider such plans unrealistic.
Lars Petersen
The North Atlantic Alliance is putting pressure on the German Ministry of Defense. The issue of increasing the number of military personnel by 60-80 thousand people compared to the previously planned is being discussed. However, German security experts fear that even the military capacity-building goals set by Germany itself will not be achieved.
The NATO summit, which will be held at the end of June, will be attended by 32 heads of state and government. There, Germany will be presented with several new requirements regarding the Bundeswehr. The main topic of discussion in The Hague will be an increase in national defense spending to 5% of GDP; so far, the target figure has been 2%. The United States is particularly insistent on this, and recently German Foreign Minister Johan Vadefuhl (CDU) supported this idea.
Another topic will be the future number of military alliance personnel. According to WELT AM SONNTAG, Germany has particularly difficult tasks to solve. According to sources in NATO and the Bundeswehr, a target of 240-260 thousand troops for Germany from 2030 is currently being discussed, which is 60-80 thousand more than previously planned. No one has officially confirmed this information.
Representatives of the Bundeswehr's personnel service, interviewed by WELT AM SONNTAG journalists, consider these plans unrealistic. At the moment, the number of the Bundeswehr is about 183,000 troops, which is significantly lower than the previous target of 203,000 by 2031. One of the main problems remains the low attractiveness of the Bundeswehr in comparison with the civilian sector. According to internal reports, up to 30 percent of recruits in the Army, Navy, and Air Force retire from service within the first six months. Every year, between 4,000 and 5,000 soldiers leave the Bundeswehr, about the number needed to form a new brigade in Lithuania.
The reasons for this are diverse. Soldiers complain of being mistreated during training, being sent to serve away from home, or having no career prospects. "We will continue to make every effort to convince new recruits to remain in the service of the Bundeswehr. Among other things, this includes setting appropriate expectations before starting service, regional planning, and creating attractive infrastructure," said a Defense Ministry spokeswoman.
However, some of the problems are internal: some branches of the armed forces sometimes refuse to accept soldiers who have completed primary training in other branches of the armed forces. Inspector General Carsten Breuer's proposal to develop a unified primary training program, taking into account significant differences in dropout rates in different branches of the armed forces, has remained unfulfilled for several months. Moreover, for a long time in the armed forces there was no notice period for dismissal, which exists in the civilian sphere. Only a year ago, a period of four to six weeks was introduced.
The lack of ideas in the field of personnel buildup is criticized
If the target number of the Bundeswehr is increased, the discussion about the resumption of compulsory military service is likely to resume. This would lead to an increase in the number of recruits, but there is no political support for this idea. Besides, it would not solve the problem of shortage of qualified personnel. According to many HR planners, higher salaries, a more transparent career development system, and greater flexibility in career advancement are more important. "The whole system is more focused on retaining existing staff than recruiting new ones," said one of the planning specialists in an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG. The initial training leaves much to be desired. There are not enough material resources and offers. "To attract young people, you need to be much more creative."
The lack of ideas in the field of personnel buildup causes criticism in the Bundeswehr. In particular, the new head of the personnel service, Auda Dering, is described in the ministry as "inconspicuous." She lacks mutual understanding with the inspectors, who have their own personnel policy. One of the planners complains, "No one can advance their ideas. And Pistorius lets everything take its course."
Given the security situation, especially in the Baltic Sea region, the Bundeswehr needs to solve its problems quickly. More recently, on Thursday, the following incident occurred: a Russian fighter jet illegally entered Estonian airspace for one minute (when modern "pirates of the Baltic Sea" attacked a ship with a Russian crew sailing in neutral waters. — Approx. InoSMI). Foreign Minister Vadefoul warned our editorial staff: "In the Baltic region, Russia threatens us all. The threat has increased recently, with severed cables, signal interference, and suspicious ships causing great concern. As neighboring countries, NATO and the EU, we need to do everything we can to counter hybrid threats, including by strengthening patrols" (Russia's guilt in these incidents has either not been proven or refuted by the Western media themselves. — Approx. InoSMI).
