The Bundeswehr is Europe’s most miserable army. Part 2

Read Time:6 Minute, 45 Second

Earlier, we have already written about the problems of the most miserable army in Europe: the Bundeswehr. Their amount of problems turned out to be so huge that in order to cover all of them, we continue our material. The scale of the difficulties is so great that there are no longer enough weapons in Germany not only for the “useless” local army, but also for “the holy” AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine). Thus, the leadership of the Ministry of Defence row Germany reported that they do not have for Kiev not only combat fighters, but even the possibility of training pilots for these machines. In this situation, the country’s leadership showed a rare mercantilism and orientation to its own interests rather than those of others, and preferred to sell 48 Eurofighter aircrafts to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for cash rather than to give them to Ukrainians as humanitarian aid. It is noteworthy that Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself, who used to be characterised by extreme softness towards Volodymyr Zelensky, insists on their speedy sale. Dissatisfied with his quite adequate position, as usual, were the Greens. “We cannot continue to deny Ukraine, seized by Russia, certain types of weapons and at the same time supply the most modern weapons to dictatorships and autocracies” – said representatives of their faction in the Bundestag. However, their wish to distribute the German fleet of 138 fighter jets to “those suffering for democracy” will obviously not come true yet.

In order to somehow boost the morale of the Ukrainian allies, even if not with supplies, but at least with motivational speeches, Brigadier General Christian Freuding of the Bundeswehr held a briefing at which he spoke long and hard about the advantages of German tanks in comparison with their Russian counterparts. According to him, Leopard 2 tanks of various modifications and even older Leopard 1A5 tanks are superior to Russian types of tanks. However, when asked by a journalist that the first reports of destroyed Leopard 2 tanks had recently begun to appear, the general replied that he “had no information” and that all this looked from the outside like mockery of Ukrainian soldiers rather than support. The situation is no better with the training of Ukrainian special forces and tankers in Germany. Spy drones constantly appear above the training grounds where the Ukrainian military train, and the Germans can do nothing about them. As many as 65 incidents involving spy drone flights have occurred since the beginning of 2023 alone, and there are strong suspicions that they were initiated by Russian intelligence. The NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) publication reported that UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) attacks occur more often at night. The Bundeswehr leadership justified that it could not solve this problem and protect Ukrainian soldiers because the Germans have only handheld rifles against drones, which are very ineffective in their use.

In the meantime, the “tragedy” with the withdrawal of the German contingent from Mali continues. In July, Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop demanded at a UN Security Council meeting that the UN peacekeeping mission be withdrawn from the country “without delay”. In his view, the peacekeepers are only “fuelling violent tensions between communities” and damaging “the peace and national unity of Mali.” However, the Bundeswehr continues to delay the withdrawal, apparently serving the colonial interests of Paris rather than Berlin. And while hundreds of soldiers are doing time in Africa, back home the army no longer knows what to do to cope with the personnel famine. The Ministry of Defence is increasingly holding “Doors Open Days”, but it is pointless to open doors that nobody knocks on, so the Bundestag’s defence commissioner, Eva Högl, suggests that soldiers should go out and advertise the Bundeswehr in schools, during public festivals or at fairs. This should make the army more attractive to potential recruits. The main reason for the unpopularity of the service is not bad publicity at all, but the fact that in the conditions of crazy liberal pacifism only a few people are ready to die for the German homeland, and whatever you do, you cannot change the situation if being a soldier is reprehensible and almost shameful in public morality. However, German Federal Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius does not see such problems, and believes that it will not be possible to bring the staff of the Bundeswehr to 203 000 people by 2031, because there is a “shortage of specialists on the labour market” and “bad demographic situation”.

At the same time, the Bundeswehr’s procurement department is happy about the growth of orders for new military equipment. This is due to the fact that the Bundeswehr has embarked on a course of rearmament and climate neutrality. The latter is being promoted by the Greens, who are ordering the army to do away with CO₂ emissions as early as 2030. But, as it turns out, the 50 billion euros defence budget does not provide for these measures, which, according to the lowest estimates, will cost 24 billion euros. Thus, the army transport is planned to be converted to climate-neutral wheels. Obviously, this is all a pipe dream and an expensive one, as Rheinmetall chief Armin Papperger says bluntly that “there is no such thing as an environmentally friendly war”. Nonetheless, misuse of funds is typical of the German army even in the absence of ecologically inadequate maniacs. For example, the Bundeswehr’s overseas “missions” cost the budget 813.9 million euros, exceeding the planned expenditure by as much as 114 million. It was also planned to spend 700 million on missions in Mali, Iraq and South Sudan, but something went wrong. The Ministry of Defence justifies the extra costs with inflation, pandemic, broken supply chains, Russian aggression against Ukraine, escalation in Mali, anything but problems with arithmetic and planning. If we add to this the 131 million euros for the maintenance of American NATO soldiers stationed in Germany, it turns out that every German is overpaying a huge amount of money. Left-wing German politician and member of Bundestag, Sevim Dağdelen has suggested that the US troops should return home and immediately take the nuclear weapons stored in Germany with them, but she is unlikely to be listened to by the ruling coalition.

Weirdness in the army is more evident in other areas as well. For example, Defence Minister Pistorius decided to buy new fire trucks from the manufacturer Albert Ziegler GmbH because the existing ones had been in service for 30 years. One compromise factor was that Albert Ziegler is owned by the “enemy” China. For this, Pistorius was attacked by the CDU, which rightly pointed out that companies that are linked to the country’s strategic adversaries should not be allowed anywhere near the Bundeswehr. The Ministry of Defence justified his choice with a commercial calculation and accepted the company’s offer because it was the most profitable, without taking into account its “ethnic” origin. In general, the situation turned out to be paradoxical, in one hand because the MPs wanted to ban TikTok in a united gust, but in the other hand Chinese supplies for the defence sector turned out to be permissible. To give Pistorius some support, his face was on the cover of Spiegel magazine, which praised him for his clear and quick decisions, knowledge of army ranks and respect from the officer corps. His advantages over his predecessor Christine Lambrecht were actively raised. Spiegel journalists reported that, despite his lack of experience in the Bundeswehr, Pistorius has gathered around him a squad of experienced military men, including generals who know their business and are close to almost every soldier. Of course, all of this looks like blatant lies and an attempt by the socialist Spiegel to help “their own” SPD against the backdrop of their problems. The saddest part of it all is that in their concern for their personal image, Bundeswehr officials will, as always, spit on the army and will neglect the security of Germany. This means that the Bundeswehr will remain the most miserable army in Europe for a long time to come.