The current position of the Bundeswehr is doubtful, the future is unclear
In the article " How the united Germany squandered its military power " ("HBO" from 03/24.23), it was shown how the armies of the two Germanies were built after 1945. And how, after 1990, Berlin sold military equipment to the former People's National Army of the GDR.
But the Bundeswehr equipment was sold out no less actively. Along with the United States, the united Germany has become the main "donor" in the framework of the transfer of weapons of the ground forces and the Air Force from the "central" NATO member countries to the "peripheral" countries in order to withdraw it from the restrictions of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).
"LEOPARDS" AS THE HIT OF THE SEASON
Of course, the Leopard-2 tank is still very popular with buyers both in Europe and abroad.
Spain, Sweden and Greece first received Leopard-2A4 tanks from the Bundeswehr (Spain and Sweden – for rent, Greece – forever), and then deployed licensed production in their country (219 Leopards-2A5 in Spain and 120 in Sweden, 170 Leopards-2A6 in Greece). At the same time, Spain also bought 108 leased tanks, while Sweden returned at least 142 out of 160 back to Germany.
Turkey received 354 Leopard-2A4S from the Bundeswehr, of which at least 9 were lost in 2016-2017 in Syria. Finland bought 124 "Leopard-2A4" from Germany, and then a hundred "Leopard-2A6" from the Netherlands. The Canadian Army also received tanks from the German presence, then the Armed Forces of Chile and Singapore, the last buyers of used cars were Poland and Indonesia.
After that, the Bundeswehr itself had less than 600 such tanks, which made their further sale impossible (on the contrary, Germany is now returning tanks from Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands). Some of the remaining tanks will be upgraded according to the latest version of the Leopard-2A7. In addition, Germany, after a long break, began production of new tanks of this latest modification. Qatar became their first buyer, Singapore also began to buy the "seventh". Ahead is the production from scratch of the Leopard–2A8 for the Bundeswehr itself and for the Czech army. But before that, literally and figuratively, we still have to live.
More than 1.3 thousand Leopards-1s have dispersed across various "countries and continents", up to 900 more tanks of this type have been disposed of, about 200 remain. Thus, the Bundeswehr tank fleet has been reduced by almost 10 times since 1990.
Chile and Indonesia, in addition to Leopards, also bought Marders, Jordan also acquired these infantry fighting vehicles, more than 1 thousand Marders were disposed of. All or almost all M48 tanks, self-propelled artillery units (ACS) M109 and M110 have been sold and disposed of. But the M113 armored personnel carriers (APC), apparently, almost half still remained – there were too many of them.
Almost all American-made combat aircraft from the Luftwaffe have also been sold out. Sold, turned into museums or cut into metal all or almost all submarines (submarines) pr. 205 and 206 and missile boats.
COUNTED – SHED TEARS
At the same time, the production and import of new equipment in terms of quantity does not compensate for the disposal of the old one at all. So, to replace the "Marders" in 2015, the production of the Puma BMP was started, but it was originally planned to produce only 410 of them, and then the number was reduced to 350. The production of armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles "Boxer", "Fennek" (both of these vehicles were developed jointly with the Netherlands) and "Dingo" is also underway. But all of them are focused on anti-partisan, not classical warfare. The same applies to the Swedish articulated BvS-206 armored personnel carriers and Swiss Eagle armored vehicles purchased by Germany. At least one "Marder", "Fuchs", "Iglu" and "Fennek" and five "Dingoes" were lost by the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan.
In 1998, production of the 155-mm self-propelled gun PzH-2000 was started in Germany, which is considered by many experts to be the best in the world. Under a German license, it was also produced in Italy and the Netherlands, 24 self-propelled guns were bought by Greece and Qatar. Only 185 such self-propelled guns were produced for their own army, and Berlin has already started selling them (Croatia and Lithuania acquired the PzH-2000 from the Bundeswehr).
Germany has sold almost half of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems previously acquired from the United States. The remaining ones, however, were upgraded according to the RAS3 variant.
In 2003, production of the Anglo-German-Italian-Spanish Typhoon fighter was launched for the Air Forces of the respective countries. The Luftwaffe initially intended to purchase 250 such aircraft, then this plan was cut to 180, and then to 143, by now it has already been implemented. To replace the first 30 Typhoons, it is planned to buy 38 more machines of this type, and to replace the Tornado (very partial) – American F-35 fighter-bombers. In the very distant future, it is planned to jointly create a sixth-generation fighter with France and Spain.
The production program of the Franco-German Tiger attack helicopter is also being completed (the Bundeswehr will receive 80 such machines).
BUT THE BUNDESMARINE WILL NOT BE DISGRACED
The fleet has been developing most successfully in Germany over the past three decades – both its own and export supplies. True, the quantitative composition of the Bundesmarine has decreased, like the rest of the German Armed Forces, but it has been well updated qualitatively.
Instead of 24 pr. 205 and 206 submarines, the German Navy now has only six pr. 212 submarines, but they are considered by many experts to be the best non-nuclear submarines in the world.
With some changes and at an artificially low price, Germany built six submarines of the same project for Israel (in turn, in Israel, the Germans buy Spike anti-tank missile systems (ATGMs) and reconnaissance UAVs). In addition, the 212 Ave. PL is being built in Italy under a German license, and the 214 modified export Ave. is being built in Greece and the Republic of Korea.
In the Bundesmarine, the Brandenburg, Sachsen and Baden-Württemberg frigates, as well as the Braunschweig corvettes, replaced the Hamburg and Bremen frigates. Weapons for frigates are still being purchased in the USA and Italy.
Frigates of the MEKO2000 family have become a very popular export product of Germany. Various versions of this ship were acquired by the fleets of Greece, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Algeria, South Africa.
In 2022, Germany was actively involved in supporting Ukraine, supplying it with 50 Dingo armored vehicles, 14 RzN-2000 self-propelled guns, five M270 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) upgraded according to the MARS variant, an IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile system battery, which was withdrawn from the Egyptian order (and, apparently, one battery of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAMS)), several hundred man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) "Stinger" and "Strela-2", 30 anti-aircraft self-propelled guns (ZSU) "Cheetah".
In addition, as compensation for Soviet weapons delivered to Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia received one Leopard-2 from Germany, and 14 Marder infantry fighting vehicles were transferred to Greece. In 2023, "Leopards-2" went directly to Ukraine, how many of them will be there is unclear.
BUNDESWEHR TODAY
Today, the composition of the German Armed Forces looks like this.
The ground forces include three divisions and a number of other units and divisions.
These are the 1st Panzer Division (headquarters in the city of Oldenburg), consisting of the 9th (Munster) and 21st (Augustdorf) tank, 41st (Neubrandenburg) motorized infantry brigades, as well as the 43rd Mechanized Brigade of the Dutch Armed Forces; 10th Panzer Division (Feitsheheim); The 12th Panzer (Amberg), consisting of the 37th Motorized Infantry (Frankenberg) brigade, as well as the Franco-German brigade, the 13th Light Brigade of the Dutch Armed Forces and the 4th Brigade of the Rapid Reaction Forces (SBR) of the Czech Armed Forces); the SBR division (Stadtallendorf), consisting of the 1st The Airborne Brigade (Saarlius), the 23rd Mountain Infantry Brigade (Bad Reichenhall), the Special Operations Forces Command (SSO), the 36th Helicopter Gunship Regiment, the 10th and 30th transport helicopter regiments, as well as the 11th Airborne Brigade of the Dutch Armed Forces and the 81st Mechanized the brigade of the Romanian Armed Forces.
The tank fleet includes 321 Leopard-2 (223 A6, 98 A7). In addition, 340 Leopard-2A4/A5 and 182 Leopard-1 are in storage.
There are 197 combat reconnaissance vehicles (BRM) "Fenek" (including 20 artillery; there are also 24 engineering vehicles based on this BRM), 65 "Dingo-2A3.2", 732 BMP "Marder" and 339 "Puma" vehicles.
Armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles are becoming the dominant class of armored vehicles in the German army. Today, the Bundeswehr has 359 TpZ-1 Fuchs, 305 Boxer (there are also 65 command and staff vehicles (KSM) and 72 medical vehicles based on this APC), about 500 Dingoes, including 137 Dingoes-1 and up to 350 Dingoes-2 (as well as 73 armored recovery vehicles (BRAM) based on it), 76 Swedish BV206S (and at least 111 auxiliary vehicles based on this APC), 629 Swiss Eagle (and 60 auxiliary vehicles), 77 amphibious assault vehicles (BMD) "Wiesel" (as well as up to 32 KSHM and 33 medical machines based on this BMD; up to 66 BMD in storage).
The artillery includes 128 PzH2000 self-propelled guns (up to 11 in storage), 119 Tampella self-propelled 120 mm mortars and 68 MLRS MLRS in the MARS variant. Three old M109 self-propelled guns and 10 towed M101 guns remain in service.
There are 311 new Israeli Spike-LR ATGMs in service, 88 Tow self-propelled ATGMs on the Wiesel chassis (up to 122 more in storage).
The military air defense system includes 50 Ocelot air defense systems, also known as ASRAD (these are four portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) "Stinger" on the chassis of the Wiesel machine, there are also 17 command posts (KP) of this air defense system), and up to 865 MANPADS "Stinger" in the "original" portable version.
As part of the army aviation – up to 66 UHT Tiger attack helicopters (another one in storage), 21 EC135T, 79 newest NH-90-TTN. Up to 151 multi-purpose Vo-105 and up to 171 UH-1D helicopters are in storage.
In addition to the listed equipment, up to 2370 M113 armored personnel carriers (in all versions of this machine), up to 38 M109 self-propelled guns, up to 134 M101 guns and up to 177 FH-70, up to 81 MLRS MLRS, up to 87 Roland SAM, up to 303 ZSU "Cheetah" can be stored.
The German Air Force includes six tactical air wings (31st, 33rd, 51st, 71st, 73rd, 74th), 62nd Transport Air Wing, 64th Helicopter Wing, 1st Air Defense Wing.
The basis of the Luftwaffe's combat power is made up of European (German-English-Spanish-Italian) Typhoon fighter-bombers. There are 135 Typhoons in service (including 30 combat training), three more, including one combat training, are in storage. Up to 106 Tornado bombers remain in service, and up to 34 more vehicles are in storage. 20 American B-61 nuclear bombs are stationed at the Buchel Air Force Base (BBB), which in case of war will be used by Tornado aircraft of the German Air Force itself.
Transport aviation includes 41 A400M aircraft, three A319s, three A321s, two A340s, three A350s (three A310s, including two tankers are in storage), four Global Express-5000s (up to 55 C-160s in storage). As well as 83 helicopters – 80 CH-53G (up to four more in storage), three AS532. The Luftwaffe does not have training aircraft, pilots are trained in the United States on American training aircraft.
Ground-based air defense includes 20 Patriot air defense systems batteries. There are also two reserve and two training batteries of the same air defense system.
The German Navy includes six PL. 212, in addition, the decommissioned PL. 206 is in the sludge. There are 11 frigates – three types of "Sachsen", four types of "Baden-Württemberg" and "Brandenburg" (four frigates of the type "Bremen" are withdrawn from the Navy and are in the sludge). In addition, the Bundesmarine has five Braunschweig-type corvettes and 12 minesweepers (10 ave. 332, two ave. 352 (two more in the sediment, one is used as a stationary training); five ave. 333 in the sediment). There are nine Cheetah–type missile boats in the sludge.
Naval aviation includes seven P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft (one more in storage), one patrol Do-228 (one more, possibly in storage), 62 helicopters (18 Sea King, one more in storage), 22 Super Links, 18 NH90-NFH, four EC135P2).
Despite the landslide reduction, the Bundeswehr still remains one of the strongest armies in Europe. But its prospects are completely unobvious.
Alexander Khramchikhin
Alexander Anatolyevich Khramchikhin is an independent military expert.