Germany

[kato]

Corona package for the Bundeswehr (military share of the touted "10 billion for military and security"), still under discussion between MoD and MoF

The Corona package for the Bundeswehr mostly fizzled out way below the described numbers.

Orders in total included:

• 1000 Rheinmetall HX trucks (850x 15-ton + 150x 5-ton) for 398 million Euro
• undeclared number of 70-ton (tank transport) heavy trucks for 31.8 million Euro (apparently not as a single order block)
• Small-arms ammunition in a variety of calibers for 36 million Euro (including apparently 10.5 million for pistol ammunition as the largest single order)
• Medical equipment, non-expendable, specifically for NATO VJTF 2023, for 13.1 million Euro
• Capital investment in state-owned military support company BWI (IT) for 79 million Euro
• Capital investment in state-owned military support company BwFuhrParkService (transport) for 131.5 million Euro
• Renovation of buildings for energy efficiency, for 29 million Euro

As of March 2021. The 1000-truck order is the only one for which approval from parliament had to be sought.

The condition of only expediting existing contracts and realizing those that could be done effective before end of 2022 (instead of going shopping widely) seems to have been the major factor for the low use of the available money of the package. There were parallel orders made for deliveries from 2023 onwards which could not use funds from the package, such as for about another 400 trucks from Rheinmetall, for 1750 swap bodies for cargo transport on those trucks, or for 120mm MBT ammunition that ended up in a new framework contract for 203,000 rounds running until 2028.

 

[kato]

Puma upgrade contract has been signed with PSM. It involves the upgrade of 154 Puma to "S1" standard. 45 Puma are already being modified to this S1 standard separately as part of preparation for NATO VJTF2023.

S1 standard mostly integrates MELLS ATGM, changes driver vision devices to all-digital, improves some command system electronics and brings a sensor fusion "glass armor" concept for full vision for the entire crew and troops transported (according to Rheinmetall the first such system deployed outside prototypes worldwide).

The upgrade brings the overall unit cost of a Puma S1 to 19 million Euro btw. The contract includes an option to bring the remaining 143 Puma beyond that to the same standard

 

[Ananda]

Germany says to buy Boeing maritime patrol aircraft for 1.1 bln euros

Germany will purchase five Boeing (BA.N) P-8A maritime patrol aircraft for about 1.1 billion euros ($1.31 billion), the defence ministry said on Wednesday, confirming a Reuters report from earlier this month.

www.reuters.com

@kato I put this in here not to talk on P-8 procurement. However more on the part in the article talking about German still committed with French on developing more permanent airborne MPA/ASuW solution. Are there more information on this one ?

Whether this will unmanned or manned system, or combination on both ? Got some rumours on both potential, with there's still speculation using Airbus platform to develop something that can compete with US P-8 or Japanese P-1.

 

[kato]

However more on the part in the article talking about German still committed with French on developing more permanent airborne MPA/ASuW solution. Are there more information on this one ?

Reuters is only mentioning it because the official MoD press release contains the lines (semi-paraphrased) "P-8A will serve for an interim duration of 2025 to 2035. Afterwards the German-French MAWS project will provide its capabilities".

MAWS is only in its very early project stages - first study for developing it only started in November 2020. The first one was on a mission system (with Thales, Hensoldt and ESG involved), second was planned to evaluate platforms but is i think postponed until now.

 

[kato]

The defense committee and budget committee approved four further 25+ million projects this wednesday, although this was more regular procurement.

One of them is BARÜ, a total of 69 new battlefield radars for 36 million - product to be bought is ELTA ELM-2180 Watchguard, through ESG as main contractor. Deliveries planned 2022 to 2024. BARÜ will replace all current ground-based surveillance radars - ABRA (artillery - on M113), PARA (reconnaissance - on Fuchs) and LeGAR (airborne recce - on Wolf), some of which are still leftovers from cold war times. The new solution will be man-transportable and thus more flexible.
There were a couple contractual pitfalls made to ensure that ESG and ELTA got the contract, among them that it had to be compatible with the ADLER III artillery combat system (... made by ESG) and that the product had to be ITAR-free.

Two of the others were new tank containers for 29 million (well, not just fuel tanks - they function as portable gas stations with pumps and internal power supply) and uniform parts for 95 million (e.g. new backpacks).


The fourth project approved was the only big one at 2.2 billion Euro. It's an IT service contract for BWI, i.e. the inhouse civilian IT company for the Bundeswehr which is expanded into various stuff like providing a private cloud service, providing for home office possibilities in administration and so on. This one is apparently at least partially paid from the Corona Aid package.

There are various contracts stretching services provided by BWI out to 2027 already, and this one is described as a "contract modification", so this is money "on top" for new services. The last general contract closed had a budget of 4.6 billion Euro (for 2024-2027). For scale of that budget, BWI manages all "white" IT (civilian, nonclassified) at all bases worldwide with about 200,000 computers, provides a separate 12,000 km fiber network between all Bundeswehr bases in Germany, manages all datacenters and telephony systems for the Bundeswehr and provides the central logistics and administration system SASPF.
BWI was originally created as a joint venture of Siemens and Deutsche Telekom (funnily you can always spot with the older guys there which of those two companies they originally came from...) providing civilian IT services for the Bundeswehr that was re-nationalized as a state-owned company in 2016.

 

[kato]

The German Federal Police has issued a tender for replacing its medium Super Puma (AS332L1) and light Dauphin (EC155B) transport helicopters with a new unitary model. Planned investment for 39 helicopters + 5 options is up to about 1.8 billion Euro, to be delivered in a timeframe 2022 to 2032.

The requirements list is pretty much (at least in my opinion) written in a way to exclude other manufacturers from competing with the Bell 525 - on minor details.

Notable requirements in general as part of the tender include deck landing capability on the four OPV86BP large coast guard ships and air transportability in an An-124.

The Federal Police operates its current 38 transport helicopters mostly for troop transport purposes, as well as logistics and firefighting in assistance to state forces. The EC155 also serve in observation and surveillance roles. Four helicopters are earmarked for coast guard patrols. Most of the fleet is relatively old, two thirds of the Super Pumas were originally built in the 80s. Most of these helicopters were bought used over time. Beyond the transport fleet the Federal Police also operates 24 EC135 in reconnaissance roles, a further 18 EC135 (in peacetime) in civilian MedEvac stations and 10 EC120 for training.

 

[kato]

The company Polaris Raumflugzeuge in Bremen has received an order for studying a system called Rapid Deployable Reconnaissance System (RDRS) from the Bundeswehr. Polaris is a startup spinoff of German Aerospace Agency DLR formed to exploit a DLR concept called "Aurora" for a horizontal-takeoff SSTO spaceplane for satellite launching.

POLARIS Raumflugzeuge - POLARIS Receives First Bundeswehr Contract

Die Polaris Raumflugzeuge GmbH ist ein junges Startup-Unternehmen, das ein neuartiges Raumtransportsystem für den orbitalen und suborbitalen Raumflug sowie für Hyperschallmissionen entwickelt. Unser Ziel ist die Revolutionierung des Raumtransports mit horizontal startenden Raumflugzeugen für...

www.polaris-raumflugzeuge.de

RDRS is a 250,000 Euro research contract to study - on paper, for 4 months - possible applications of Aurora as a hypersonic reconnaissance drone (non-orbital, think along the lines of SR71/D21, just faster). It's not like any followup is likely planned. Issueing this grant now can be seen mostly in the context of the Bundeswehr establishing its Space Command in the Air Force two weeks ago, i.e. they're sorta shopping around for ideas.

While Aurora itself is relatively low-TRL the company apparently does have some ideas on how to give it some temporary use until subcomponents (such as aerospike engines) reach viability. These mostly seem to involve mounting EJ200 engines from Eurofighters in it for takeoff and landing and propelling it to Mach 8-10 with a rocket engine. That's the part where the Bundeswehr is interested enough to give em some money.

 

[kato]

Issueing this grant now can be seen mostly in the context of the Bundeswehr establishing its Space Command in the Air Force two weeks ago, i.e. they're sorta shopping around for ideas.

As part of this shopping around a cooperation treaty between the German Space Agency DLR and the University of the Bundeswehr (UniBw), department of Aerospace Technology was also signed on July 20th. DLR and UniBw cooperated before, this is more of a formalization.

Focus of joint R&D will be in "future development of critical space infrastructure", in particular standardized space busses, micro-satellite concepts and secure communications. DLR also recently established a research center for rapid-response satellite launch ("Reponsive Space" competence center) which will be integrated into the cooperation - the head of that research center is also DLR's programme coordinator for security research (i.e. R&D in defense matters). There are plans to establish a number of joint small satellite projects for implementation relatively soon.

 

[Chaldry]

Any news on the HK-Haenel lawsuit? Last I heard was they were both going to court to settle the issue.

 

[kato]

There are three separate lawsuits:

• Haenel lost a case with the Düsseldorf State Court on November 16th last year in which the court decided they had violated a HK patent. The court decision refers to the semiautomatic version of their rifle (CR223), which was sold to the state police forces of Saxony and Bremen. Haenel appealed the decision with the Upper State Court on January 6th, there are no court dates for this round yet.
• There is a separate court case about offering the automatic version (MK556) to the Bundeswehr with the Düsseldorf Upper State Court. I think this case is not about the patent/rifle itself, but about the decision of the review chamber that Haenel did not submit the cheapest offer in the tender, which came as a sidestep over patent violation concerns. A court decision on that is expected for March this year.
• There is a third case at the Munich Patent Court about the patent itself, which Haenel wants deleted. It's completely open when there will be a decision on that - some papers have tentatively stated that it could be 2023 for a decision.

The patent concerned in the above cases is apparently about holes in the bottom of the receiver to act as drainage in case the weapon happens to be submerged in water in the field. HK apparently calls it their "over-the-beach" patent. After a cease&desist order regarding the CR223 from HK's lawyers Haenel changed the receiver design for the MK556 from three holes to a single drainage hole for this feature in an attempt to circumvent the patent.


Completely separate from that patent there have been issues raised about magazines offered with rifles in the tender. This concerns US company Magpul who is well-known for sueing about anyone over claimed patent infringement, and is sort of a really, really messy three-way affair with HK claiming Haenel violates Magpul patents, Magpul proclaiming they would sue HK over their magazines last April, and HK promptly filing a lawsuit trying to shut up Magpul last June (with the Düsseldorf State Court again).
There is also Magpul's german production partner Oberland Arms sorta involved, and there have been ITAR concerns raised - the Bundeswehr tender required ITAR-free products. Supposedly there was even a - confidential - patent rights examination by the Bundeswehr over this.

 

[kato]

Brigadier General Kreitmayr, the head of KSK, in September will be transferred to a post in the Armed Forces Office that is used for "problematic" cases that the Bundeswehr wants to keep out of the public light.

The (civilian) District Attorney for Tübingen district has now formally brought charges to have Brigadier General Kreitmayr tried for §40 Military Criminal Law (WStG). It is still up to the court to decide whether it will accept the charges and try him.

§40 WStG punishes officers who "fail to report or investigate suspicion of a crime by a subordinate or fail to transfer such criminal investigations in order to abscond the subordinate from punishment".
It is similar to a civilian obstruction of punishment charge (§258 StGB), although the military version already applies in mere cases of suspicion of a crime. §40 WStG is punishable by up to 3 years prison, which is the same as for §258 StGB "in lesser cases".

In Kreitmayrs case this is about the disappearance of ammunition within KSK found during inventory taking of stocks for 2019. The district attorney alleges that Kreitmayr at the time suspected that subordinates (soldiers of KSK) were the cause of the disappearance, but did not investigate the matter.
Kreitmayr instead - by verbal, thus undocumented order - organized an anonymous hand-in under amnesty conditions, during which about 5,000 rounds of live small-arms ammunition, 41,000 rounds of blank ammunition and two hand grenades were recovered. When Kreitmayr's divisional commander got wind of what was happening there in March 2021 he ordered the hand-in stopped, which Kreitmayr failed to immediately do as ordered - ammunition was still being taken in by June.
Kreitmayr's defense attorneys have published a statement in response to the charges stating that the ammunition hand-in was about "rectifying the unknown location of the ammunition and preventing it getting into the wrong hands" while of course "not suspecting any criminal activity".

Formal outside criminal investigations into this started immediately in April 2021, and included gathering hundreds of witness reports and confiscating documentation at KSK and with Kreitmayr. A separate internal disciplinary investigation against Kreitmayr was started around the same time. I doubt we'll hear much about that one though.

 

[Musashi_kenshin]

Huge announcement made today by Scholz.

Germany commits 100 billion euros to new armed forces fund

The announcement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz raises the country’s defence spending above 2 of GDP.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

A E100 billion special fund for the armed forces, with 2% of GDP spent on defence by 2024. It's not clear if the E100 billion is what will be spent to get to the 2% threshold, but it's incredibly important for German and NATO security nonetheless. It would mean it becomes Europe's largest spender on defence. Germany may finally become the heart of European security, as it should be.

 

[swerve]

Putin's convinced the Social Democrats & the Greens to increase German military spending by 50% & announce that they'll keep it there. Baerbock said this a short time ago "A few weeks ago I said on arms exports that an "about turn" would change when the moment comes - and it has now come. We carried out diplomacy as long as we could, the Kremlin lied to us and made ridiculous everything that we pushed for."

Annual spending up to 2% of GDP by 2024 means a 50% increase in 2 years. That may be as fast as the Bundeswehr can absorb the money. I presume that in the short term there'll be more money for training, maintenance, buying spares, & so on, & new equipment being accelerated, plus recruitment to fill any gaps.

A triumph for Russian diplomacy, eh? Together with Germany now giving arms to Ukraine & allowing others who have German weapons to give them to Ukraine, it's a dramatic turnaround.

 

[MARKMILES77]

If this article is correct, seems German Defence spending will be 100 Billion Euro in 2022 alone.
i.e. Has committed 100 Billion out of the 2022 German Federal Budget.
From Deutsche Welle

Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a plan to beef up the German military on Sunday, pledging €100 billion ($112.7 billion) of the 2022 budget for the armed forces, and repeating his promise to reach the 2% of GDP spending on defense in line with NATO demands.

He said the spending would be as part of a package in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine that includes investments and armaments projects.

"It's clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,'' Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag in Berlin.

Germany commits €100 billion to defense spending – DW – 02/27/2022

Germany has announced a plan to prioritize military spending in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A "special fund" will be set up to better equip the Bundeswehr.

www.dw.com

 

[Ananda]

That 100 billion Euro is needed fast to increase the readiness of German AF, Navy and getting more ammo stockpilled for Ground Forces.

NATO: How useful is Germany's Bundeswehr? – DW – 02/25/2022

Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, NATO has begun to reinforce its eastern flank. The German Bundeswehr is also involved. But critics warn the army is too depleted to act.

www.dw.com

 

[MARKMILES77]

This would mean the German Defence Budget is more than doubled for 2022 from what was planned.

 

[kato]

It's not clear if the E100 billion is what will be spent to get to the 2% threshold

It is clear in the original speech.

• The 100 billion Euro are a "special fonds" for 2022 only. Finance Minister Lindner later explained that the government will seek entering this fonds specifically into the constitution in order to restrict its use to national and allied defense (i.e. not for expeditionary purposes).
• The 2% threshold is named explicitly as "now and in future years".

Basically push in additional 100 billion Euro now (including the 49 billion Euro regular budget that will be exactly 4.0% of projected GDP for 2022), then step down to 2% and maintain that.

This would mean the German Defence Budget is more than doubled for 2022 from what was planned.

Tripled.

---

Salient other points of the speech:

• Defensive deployment of Bundeswehr units as currently progressing will be maintained.
  • Explicitly named were the (EFP) Battlegroup in Lithuania, the (planned) second Battlegroup in Slovakia, the Air Policing in Romania (formed adhoc from a training deployment with Italy), deployment of additional German Navy ships in Baltic Sea and Mediterranean.
  • air defense units to Eastern European NATO countries are mentioned as being readied
• Mention of certain procurement projects
  • MGCS and FCAS as well as Eurodrone are being prioritized. Eurofighter will be further developed as a stop-gap.
  • The government seeks to procure armed Heron UCAV from Israel.
  • NATO Nuclear sharing is explicitly mentioned. For replacement of Tornado Eurofighter will be used for SEAD and "as a carrier" F-35 "will be considered".

"Fun" quotes from the speech:

• "We shall defend every square meter of NATO"
• "Do not ask what you can get for your country out of Brussels, ask what is the best decision for The Union"

 

[ngatimozart]

Maybe Herr Scholz should do if for two years in a row. According to this article the Bundeswehr is in a sad state indeed.

NATO: How useful is Germany′s Bundeswehr? | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 25.02.2022

 

[Big_Zucchini]

Why do I have the feeling this money will be squandered on high risk programs and inefficient buys, after which a thorough review will determine the money should not have been given in that amount, and then budget cuts will return the German armed forces to where they are now?

 

[Musashi_kenshin]

Why do I have the feeling this money will be squandered on high risk programs and inefficient buys, after which a thorough review will determine the money should not have been given in that amount, and then budget cuts will return the German armed forces to where they are now?

You can't predict what future administrations will do, but there is a commitment to keep defence spending at 2% of GDP after this year's boost is over. That alone will be a significant increase over current funding levels.