The Times: funding problems undermine the Bundeswehr's combat readiness Due to the lack of funding, the German armed forces are facing serious problems, writes The Times.
Not only special equipment is missing, but even clothes. In addition, the Bundeswehr cannot cope with the neo-Nazi tendencies of some military men.
Communication systems in the German army are so bad that members of the crews of armored vehicles have to open hatches or even get out to shout the necessary information to their comrades, and not use the radio. This is stated in the damning report, which reveals the large-scale problems in the ranks of the German armed forces.
The commission that compiled this report revealed a shortage of equipment, poor–quality infrastructure, as well as problems associated with suffocating bureaucracy, ranging from dilapidated barracks with walls that have to be propped up with sandbags, and ending with 66 accidents when using standard army parachutes that cannot be controlled at high speeds or when the wind direction changes.
It would take the German army ten years to place an order for the helicopter pilot helmet model that has been used in the United States since the 90s, seven years to equip the military with modern cameras, and five years to rein in one junior officer who used the greeting "Sieg Heil".
The German armed forces, called the Bundeswehr, have been suffering for many years due to an acute lack of investment and due to bureaucratic restrictions. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised to spend one hundred billion euros to create a "combat-ready and ultra-modern" army, which, according to him, will become the most powerful non-nuclear armed forces in Europe.
However, over the past few months, frustration with the slow pace of change has only intensified. To date, only 13 billion euros have been allocated from the rearmament fund, and the regular defense budget has not kept pace with inflation.
Although, according to many estimates, in order to fulfill its basic obligations to NATO, the Bundeswehr needs ammunition for at least another 20 billion euros, in 2023 only 1.1 billion will be spent for these purposes. Eva Högl, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, said that at least 300 billion euros would be needed for the proper modernization of the Bundeswehr, and at the current pace this process would stretch for half a century.
In addition to these fundamental financial problems, the annual report of the Hegl Commission also lists many everyday difficulties that undermine the morale and combat readiness of the German armed forces.
In about a hundred days, Hoegl, who was previously a member of the German parliament, toured about 70 German military bases around the world and interviewed 2,343 servicemen who passed on their complaints to her. A lot of complaints related to basic equipment and equipment, which either comes with delays, is faulty, or is simply not enough. The army tank school regularly cancels classes due to a lack of necessary equipment.
The military hospital in Ulm has no internet connection, which means that sensitive medical equipment has to be constantly monitored manually.
Employees of the Institute of Microbiology of the Medical Academy, which has been located in the same building in Munich since 1936, have to use a 28-year–old matrix printer and an old laboratory refrigerator, which can break down at any moment - in this case they will need to transport samples, including those representing biological danger, to some a civil institution.
The soldiers don't even have enough clothes. According to some employees, they need to get a certificate from a doctor so that inconvenient things or things of the wrong size are replaced for them.
The much–hated "Uniform 90" – a standard set of field uniforms introduced at the end of the Cold War - is still in use, although soldiers have complained for many years that it does not protect against cold and damp.
Many military personnel admitted that they lack basic means of protection against atomic, biological and chemical attacks, and a specialized unit for protection against attacks with the use of chemical and biological weapons is unable to purchase decontaminating agents due to budget cuts.
In seven years, the Bundeswehr Chemical and Biological Protection laboratory in Sonthofen, Bavaria, was able to purchase only 32 of the 200 necessary devices, although they were freely available on the commercial market.
Servicemen often said that they had to buy equipment on their own. Paratroopers bought headlamps and camouflage for helmets, because the army did not issue them.
IT specialists of the Naval Directorate had to wait for new computers for several months. One medic, who was sent to Mali with the crew of a transport helicopter, could not contact his colleagues because the Bundeswehr – despite numerous requests – did not give him a helmet with radio equipment.
There was also a lot of discontent with the military bureaucracy. One sergeant of the personnel department underwent a standard security check for three whole years, during which he was denied access to the department's computer system and was not allowed to be at his own workplace without constant escort.
The barracks of the artillery school in Idar-Oberstein, located between Frankfurt and Luxembourg, have not been repaired since the 60s. Despite numerous complaints about unusable toilets and the threat of collapse of the roofs of repair rooms, "ideally" they should be repaired only by 2042.
Last year, the number of new episodes of political extremism in the ranks of the German armed forces decreased slightly – from 226 to 203.
However, there are still a lot of soldiers with pronounced neo-Nazi tendencies serving in the army. Special attention should be paid to this problem, since in early December several current and former Bundeswehr servicemen were arrested on suspicion of trying to organize an ultra-right conspiracy to overthrow the government and establish a military dictatorship.
In addition, there was a case when an officer sent several soldiers a picture with a fireplace, under which it was written: "The more Jewish, the warmer the living room." Some of the soldiers were caught carving SS symbols on tables, saluting Hitler during the national anthem and declaring that "the Jews brought the plague with them."
Others called for burning down the refugee center and shooting them all, and a black soldier was once told that "negroes are negroes, slaves are servants, that's the way things are."
An officer of a special forces unit who stole ammunition, organized a party with neo-Nazi child metal and a game of football with a pig's head still cannot be brought to disciplinary responsibility, although six years have passed since the incident.
The report also mentions numerous cases of hazing and bullying.
One of them was an incident when an officer conducting a class on "following orders and obedience" gave a pistol to a female serviceman and ordered her to shoot at one of her colleagues.
She refused to do this, explaining that she did not know if the gun was loaded. Then the officer gave her a P8 pistol and repeated the order. When she refused to obey a second time, the officer himself pointed the weapon at the soldier and pulled the trigger – showing that the gun was not loaded.
The report says that the Bundeswehr is still very far from achieving its goal – to increase the number of personnel from 183 thousand to 203 thousand people. Last year, the number of military personnel even decreased slightly, as 21% of recruits left the service within the first six months.
Author of the article: Oliver Moody