A leading defense expert has criticized the training received by German Bundeswehr soldiers being sent to Afghanistan. This was in response to an attack in Kunduz last week, where militants killed three German soldiers.
Germany’s out-going parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Reinhold Robbe, on Tuesday publicly criticized the way German soldiers are trained before being sent to Afghanistan.
In addition to agreeing with Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s recent arguments that Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan is “war”, Robbe told German public broadcaster ARD that soldiers were insufficiently trained to operate armored vehicles.
“Our soldiers need thorough training with these vehicles – before they are sent to Afghanistan to use them in combat situations. They must be confident enough that they can operate them in their sleep,” Robbe said.
This comes in response to an attack last Friday against a German patrol in northern Afghanistan, which saw Taliban militants kill three German soldiers and wound eight others.
The attack in Kunduz began when the German patrol was on a mine-clearing mission, using the exact vehicles that Robbe said soldiers were ill-prepared to use.
Strictly a military issue?
In response to Robbe’s criticism, the foreign affairs advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Party, Ruprecht Polenz, said that the specifics of armament and military training were determined by the military itself, and not politicians.
“I admit we politicians are mere laymen when it comes to specific military issues. With regard to operational matters, we simply listen to the military’s demands.” Polenz said.
He added, however, that the government was “confident” that it was supplying troops with the best possible equipment.
Heinz Schulte, editor-in-chief of the Griephan Global Security Magazine, agrees with Polenz, saying the complaints of armies with regard to equipment are no “new practice.”
“It is a general rule that armies complain about not having the right equipment or that they haven’t got enough training. So I think this is not germane to the German situation. I think it’s a general problem, because normally armies have the equipment that was optimized for the last war,” Schulte told Deutsche Welle.
Always room for improvement
Indeed, the general consensus is that Germany provides its military with state-of-the-art protection and equipment.
However, according to Schulte, reservations with the training of soldiers on that equipment remain.
“There are sufficient numbers of armored vehicles but not enough of the same sort in Germany – for training. These vehicles are being procured at the moment, but it takes time, because you don’t have mass quantity of these vehicles and it takes quite a while to get them off the production line,” he said.
Schulte said the important thing to take from the current political debate were suggestions that can enhance the safety of German troops in Afghanistan. He insisted that there were always ways to improve the state of the military, especially with regard to the training of soldiers.
“Germany puts a tremendous amount of effort towards supplying its troops with state-of-the-art protection, but there is always room for improvement. And, if there are valid criticisms, then that has to be rectified immediately.”
