Seems like Germany's increasing defence budget is more than welcome.
@Nilgiri @Desert Fox @The Sandman @Blue Marlin @flamer84 @Pakistani Exile
-
GERMANY’S pledge last week to increase its army by 20,000 troops masks a military that is falling apart, it’s claimed.
Armed Forces Commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels claims the continent’s economic superpower was ill-equipped to fight First World War, let alone the next one.
A German army Leopard 2 tank is seen at the railway station in Sestokai, Lithuania on February 24
Mr Bartels report is filled with tragi-comic examples of the martial decay of the German armed forces.
He cites many examples, including the Saxony-based 371st tank battalion – a so-called “spearhead” unit of Nato’s Response Force.
In recent years it has had to beg and borrow 15,000 pieces of equipment from 56 other army units just to stay up to speed.
Meanwhile the 345th artillery training battalion is officially supposed to have 24 armoured artillery vehicles at its disposal.
But the reality is it has just seven, and all are on standby for Nato, meaning the unit has not carried out a single training exercise for three years.
One mountain infantry unit had only 96 pairs of night-vision goggles available for 522 men.
And 76 of them had to be loaned out to other units.
Of the remaining 20, only three were usable.
In his report Mr Bartels says the lack of equipment has given rise to a share-and-share-alike culture in the military.
Members of the German Bundeswehr’s 371st Armoured Infantry Battalion (Panzergredanadierbataillon 371) stand at attention with Marder light tanks and a display of other equipment during a media event at the battalion’s base in Marienberg
Mr Bartels wrote: “It is often the case, with Navy units that are returning from a mission, for example, that as soon as they dock in their homeport, pieces of equipment are immediately dismounted from ships and then remounted on those vessels heading out to replace them, such as radar devices.
“The components wear out much more quickly due to the frequent mounting and dismounting, such that the process becomes self-reinforcing.”
Der Spiegel magazine comment on the debacle said: “One can imagine the Bundeswehr as a fire department which, due to a lack of money, has no hoses, too few helmets, hardly any ladder trucks and no oxygen masks.
“But the department isn’t eliminated entirely just in case a fire breaks out.”
A building programme for Leopard tanks plunged from 2,000 to 225 due to cuts several years ago. Soldiers complain of a lack of communications equipment, surveillance drones and even rifles.
Germany is desperate to ramp up its military after years of degrading it after the fall of Soviet Communism.
But it still only spends 1.2 percent of its GDP on the military, instead of the minimum two percent that Nato demands and which America now wants to see paid into the club.
But that would mean an extra 25 BILLION euros added to the defence budget.
And following the military disasters of the country in the last century, no politician is willing to present that kind of bill to the electorate.
The UK - the second biggest military spender in Nato and the fifth in the world - spends a squeak under 2%.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2974916/germany-army-size-military-cuts-nato/
[sarcasmmodeon] Sad to see where the German army is being reduced to do/use !
[/sarcasmodeoff]
A mountain infantry soldier leads his pack animal during an exercise of the mountain infantry brigade 23 of the German Bundeswehr at an exercise area near the Bavarian village Bad Reichenhall, southern Germany
