Reliant on #UK? Armed with BROOM HANDLES #German army too DECREPIT for battle, SLAMS report
GERMANY’s armed forces are suffering from such severe shortages of weapons that it cannot meet its Nato commitments and its soldiers are forced to carry out drills with broom handles, it has been revealed.
Hans-Peter Bartels, the German parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, said the German army is “not equipped to meet the tasks before it” and its operational readiness is “dangerously low” to take over a frontline Nato task force next year and must be “questioned”.
Germany is supposed to take over the Nato’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), a key unit tasked with deterring Russian aggression in Europe.
But in a damning report presented by Mr Bartels, it shows how decrepit the German military is which comes only three years after a scandal over military shortages which saw German troops forced to use broomsticks instead of guns on a Nato training exercise.
Mr Bartels warned: “The German contribution to the VJTF must remain in question.”
The UK, even though it has its own crisis over military spending, is one of six European countries that meet this target.
But despite Germany being Europe’s biggest economy, it is lagging far behind with only spending 1.13 per cent of its GDP on defence last year.
He added: “Despite Government promises to find more cash, tasks for which there are supposed to be additional people and equipment in future are already upon us, soldiers already have to accomplish them today as best they can, using whatever is to hand.”
The report has revealed that only 95 of the German army’s 244 Leopard main battle tanks can be used because of maintenance issues.
Also, none of the Luftwaffe’s 14 A400M transport aircraft were airworthy on several occasions last year.
None of the Navy’s six submarines were operational at the end of last year and only nine of 15 frigates are in service.
The report comes a day after it was leaked that German units do not have sufficient winter clothing, protective gear or tents to fulfil their commitments to the VJTF.
Angela Merkel is blamed in the report for setting the defence budget €38.5bn (£34bn) is too low.
President Donald Trump has demanded Nato European members contribute more to the cost of their defence and raise military spending to meet the target of two per cent of GDP.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new coalition deal promises to boost spending to €42.2billion by 2021, but that would only account for 1.15 per cent of projected GDP.
Hans-Peter Bartels said the German army is ‘not equipped to meet the tasks before it’
But Mr Bartels, who is a former MP appointed by the German parliament to represent the interests of the military, said Mrs Merkel’s previous pledges to address shortages have not happened.
He said: “The pledged turnaround in personnel, equipment and financing is to be welcomed, but pledges alone do not make anything better.
“What I missed in the coalition agreement were concrete proposals on how the planned increase from 185,000 troops to 200,000 is to be financed.”
Germany’s post-war constitution was drafted to prevent any repeat of the abuses by the Nazis which means the armed forces are directly commanded by Parliament.
The report is seen as an attack on current defence minister Ursula von der Leyen who is unpopular with troops.
A series of shortage scandals have plagued her time at the defence ministry.
Tobias Lindner, a defence and budget expert for the opposition Greens, said: “The Bundeswehr’s problems aren’t new, but it is shocking that nearly nothing has improved after four years of Ursula von der Leyen serving as defence minister.” – Express
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