German Armed Forces reduced to 150 000?

[Daan]

The Belgians have been doing that for years and then in their regular units not a special 'foreign legion' unit.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Daan

[Simon Tan]

Freiwiliingen-Brigaden 'Galizien'. Ahhh...just like the good old days.

[BansheeOne]

The EU citizen thing has been discussed on and off for a couple years. As noted, foreign enlistment isn't unusual in Europe even outside the French and Spanish Legions; the Spanish have been heavily recruiting South Americans since they went to a volunteer force, the Brits have of course a long tradition of Commonwealth citizens serving with them, Greece takes any ethnic Greek and Cyprus anybody with at least partial Cypriot descent. In addition to Belgium, Luxembourg also employs EU citizens though they must have lived in the country for at least three years, and in Denmark anybody who has lived in the country for at least one year or in the EU for at least six and is fluent in Danish can serve, regardless of citizenship; in Ireland, minimum prior national residence is five years unless you're from the EEC (EU + Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). EU citizens can already serve in most German police forces, too.

 

Meanwhile the Bundeswehr's new capabilty profile based upon the 2016 Defense White Book and NATO's 2032 aims is out. It identifies twelve system compounds; the Land Forces compund also includes Luftwaffe helicopters and air defense as well as capabilities from force base, the medical service and the new Cyber and Information branch, and is planned to provide for

 

- the framework of one multi-national corps HQ and contributions to two more;

 

- three division HQs capable of leading 15 multi-national mechanized brigades, including

 

- eight, after 2032 possibly ten, German brigades.

 

One much-publicized detail is the procurement of numerous additional light utility helicopters which should also serve in a light attack role to supplement Tiger; this is probably envisioned to be the Eurocopter H145M, already serving in special operations support and planned to replace the tired UH-1D as the Luftwaffe's contribution to the national helicopter MEDEVAC network.

 

The Air Forces compound is intended to provide for four multi-national air task forces capable of defending the national airspace, contributing to integrated NATO air defense, securing German nuclear participation within the alliance, and winning air superiority even against enemy anti-access/area denial capabilities.

 

The Naval Forces compound should provide for 25 surface combattants (including eleven frigates) and eight submarines (currently six), capable of deploying 15 blue-sea combat and auxiliary units at any one time. There is also explicit mention of rebuilding air-sea warfare capabilities that have fallen largely by the wayside with the transfer of the Marine's fast jet component to the Luftwaffe, which promptly let it lapse; though that doesn't necessarily mean the former will be re-instated.

 

Enabling capabilities mentioned are ten logistics and one Reception, Staging and Onward Movement battalion, plus NBC defense, military police, installations engineering etc. forces. There's a lot of speculation on details required to fill this going on, like a second lot of 180-220 Pumas for the Heer and 300-plus Boxers to replace legacy vehicles, 30-60 H145M in addition to the already-planned 40-60 heavy transport helicopters (the decision between CH-47F and CH-53K seems to keep being delayed) and more active Tigers (up to 60 rather than currently 40 of the original order of 68), possibly more MSK 180 surface combattants and ABM capabilities for the Marine, etc. What's clear is that, as always, it's going to cost more money; allegedly military leadership is demanding a defense budget of about 60 billion Euro by 2023 rather than the ca. 44 billion currently planned for 2022.

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by BansheeOne

[Leo Niehorster]

As always, a good summation of the defense planning in Germany.

 

PS

Sorry, BansheeOne, but I am sure you mean billions, not millions in your last paragraph.

[BansheeOne]

Damn right I did. Will correct, thanks.

[Simon Tan]

Nothing terribly ambitious. Lots of logistics, less teeth.

[BansheeOne]

The selection between the CH-47F and CH-53K for a future heavy transport helicopter has now been officially postponed, with no money designated for it in the 2019 draft budget; though that might still change in the ongoing deliberations. I'm hearing all sorts of stuff on this, like that we're coordinating procurement with Israel which is the only other user of old CH-53 models in the wider European area, that there are negotiations with Lockheed Martin for a package deal on the King Stallion still involving acquisition of the F-35 as a Tornado replacement for the nuclear delivery role, etc.

Edited September 30, 2018 by BansheeOne

[Panzermann]

this additional elay for the MTH successor is really great. Meanwhile the CH-53G* are grounded for lack of spareparts and repairs and plain old age.

 

In the ongoing bog fire the CH-53 could not help initially,because there was only one belt for the water container that was still good to go...

 

 

Greatest Bundeswehr of all times.

 

---

 

 

in other news, the German Federal Court of Auditors has reprimanded minister of defence von der Leyen for her love of hiring external consultants for lots of money. And hiring outside the correct bidding process.

http://spiegel.de/article.do?id=1229451

 

 

Really, always those nitpicking bean counters... She has a 2% spending target to fill!

 

 

 

 

One of her sons works for Mckinsey in San Francisco by the way, which also has made the rounds recently.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Panzermann

[Simon Tan]

Can you wet lease some Chooks?

[BansheeOne]

That is actually one of the options being considered as a stopgap.

[DB]

Just pay your 2% directly to Poland. Outsourcing is still fashionable.

Edited October 2, 2018 by DB

[seahawk]

Just drop the purchase. It is not needed. For fire fighting you can buy something much cheaper and as we do not use it for non civilian uses it is all that matters.

[BansheeOne]

Just pay your 2% directly to Poland. Outsourcing is still fashionable.

 

Actually, that joke is perilously close to reality already. Last year, Germany's net contribution to the EU budget was 12.8 billion Euros, while Poland as the biggest net receiver got out 8.2 million. Incidentally, that was nearly exactly the size of their defense expeditures that year. So you could argue we were paying for their defense budget, as well as that of Romania (3.5 billion), Lithuanua (0.7 billion) and Latvia (0.4 billion) in the same way, in addition to our own.

[BansheeOne]

Per reports from today, the above numbers are now planned to be increased by 0.55 billion Euro from 2019 on, as a projected 1.1 bn increase of tax revenue will be evenly split to bolster the defense and developmental cooperation budgets, true to the coalition agreement. The problem remains that the GDP is projected to rise even faster, so after defense expenditures reach 1.31 percent of same next year, the share will drop again to 1.28, 1.27 and 1.23 until 2022, contradicting the aim of 1.5 by 2024 (not 2025 as stated above) which Germany will reportedly announce at the upcoming NATO summit.

 

The selection between the CH-47F and CH-53K for a future heavy transport helicopter has now been officially postponed, with no money designated for it in the 2019 draft budget; though that might still change in the ongoing deliberations.

 

Next year's defense budget has now been established at 43.22 billion Euro, nearly a billion more than the original plan from May. More importantly, it includes authorization to commit to various major procurement projects extending over multiple fiscal years, including the future Heavy Transport Helicopter until 2031, multi-role Eurofighters to replace Tranche 1 aircraft until 2029, Multi-Purpose Combat Ship 180/F 126 until 2028, and German-Norwegian cooperation on the Type 212 CD submarine. If there are delays resulting in money not being used for those at particular points, it can be reshuffled into procurement of MEADS.

[Panzermann]

MEADS... again one of those eternal procurement odysseys with unclaer ending.

 

 

The new boats for Marine are hopefully completed on time and do not list. HTH is stillin the air (pun intended) what is to be bought.

 

 

recently I came across some outrage that now The EuFi was to be made multi-role. That has always been in the specs, but is of course a sign that Merkel wants to invade Liechtenstein or something.

[DB]

Presumably half of the Eurofighter budget is going to be spent on actually bringing them back to flight status.

 

Given how few have been considered available, has Germany started running out of currently qualified pilots yet?

[BansheeOne]

Given that the current lack of Eurofighter combat readiness is due to cent-cost gaskets for ECM cooling circuits, it shouldn't be expensive to rectify if a task-certified replacement article source can be found ...

 

That doesn't mean they're not still flyable to keep pilots current - unlike with Army helicopters, where lack of availability has actually led to people losing their qualification. However, frustration over low flying hours (60-80 per year instead of the 180 it used to be, according to the Bundeswehr Jet Pilot Association) is a serious problem that has contributed to at least seven Eurofighter pilots quitting from the Luftwaffe this year alone.

 

There are other reasons - people shunted to fly UAVs rather than the fighters they expected, and in particular the Bundeswehr one-sidely changing contracts that used to include a special retirement clause for flying personnel reaching age 41, putting them behind desks rather than letting them go on into civilian aviation. Which gives you the impression the Luftwaffe has actually more fighter pilots than it needs. Yet per last year's report of the Bundestag's defense ombudsman, only 152 of the 235 budgeted positions were filled. So I guess money could be used for something to increase flight hours and retention rates, even it's just more fuel to burn.

[DB]

RAF has similar problems due to flying hour restrictions, I believe, but that's probably budgetary in terms of using up airframes rather than maintenance.

[BansheeOne]

Reports that the Bundeswehr's personnel board is planning to rise troop strength to 203,000 by 2025; existing target is 198,000 by 2024. It's all rather ambitious given that actual strength has only just exceeded 180,000, up from a low point of 176,000 in mid-2016 but still short even of the currently supposed 185,000. At that pace we'll be lucky to get over 190,000 by the new target date, unless admission of EU citizens is in fact realized.

[Simon Tan]

Is BW very unattractive?

[BansheeOne]

Okay, there's an important detail in the personnel numbers that I missed: the current establishment of 185,000 includes 2,500 positions for active-duty reservist, so we're actually just short 2,500 active-service troops. Likewise, the future number of 203,000 includes 4,500 reservists, so there should be 198,500 active troops. That's still a delta of 18,500 to fill in the next seven years though, which remains a challenge under current conditions of low popularity of military service and a booming economy making for strong competition in the work market, including with other public/uniformed services like police.

[Panzermann]

Is BW very unattractive?

 

For one, military is not exactly popular in Germany anymore. Most of the time you get indifferene from the general public. then the adventures in faraway countreis are not exactly popular either. then you have bad personnel management. wild base relocations and unit reorgs like every other year.

[Brian Kennedy]

Is BW very unattractive?

 

Economy is booming in Germany. That must make you really sad.

[Simon Tan]

It is fantastic. I am glad they are doing well. But you dont seem to understand supply and demand. Never mind.

[BansheeOne]

The Bundeswehr will re-establish a sixth active tank battalion, reportedly to be based in Hardheim, Baden-Württemberg. I'm unsure about assignment; BW is the basing area of the French-German Brigade, which of course currently has no tank battalion, but is supposed to be a light infantry formation with just some French light wheeled armor (though the German artillery battalion has PzH 2000 and MLRS, like all others).

 

Distribution of tank battalion across the other brigades is uneven - Panzerlehr 9 has two (of which one Durch-German), Panzer 12 one active and semi-active each; the latter is Panzergebirgsbataillon 8 that should really be affiliated with the mountain brigade of the same number, which has none. Neither has Panzergenadier Brigade 41, while Panzer 21 and Panzergrenadier 37 have one each. The most logical conclusion is that PzGebBtl 8 will be activated and relocated to support the D-F Brigade, which might need it more than the mountain troops.

 

This isn't supposed to increase the planned number of 328 Leopard 2 including buybacks, but of course that's sufficient to equip six battalions of 44 each.

Edited December 6, 2018 by BansheeOne