Germany

[kato]

France, Germany, Italy & Spain account for more than the little countries. More people & more GDP, & if they all increased their spending to 2% it'd be more extra money than the little ones doing the same.

The named four "big players" all spending average 2% would yield approximately 52 billion EUR more (190b vs 138b). Germany accounts for about half of that increase by itself (at 25b), the other half is Italy and Spain.
The other 23 EU member states all spending average 2% would only yield 6 billion EUR more (80b vs 74b).

Although the point was a different one - namely "efficiency" of spending. That's a metric that's relatively hard to gauge. Compared to relative GDP in the Big Four you have about 10-15% more money spent per soldier as a simple start.

 

[Meriv90]

What I mean is yes we will increase 50bln but what Im worried (at the same time) is how those 74b from the rest are being spent. In no way I mean that Italians and Germans are perfect purchasers (lol), but at least we got some economies of scale and negotiation power.


Im just thinking of my neighbors , ln 2018 Slovenians didn't pass the readiness test

Elite Slovenian military brigade fails NATO combat readiness test

The elite 72nd Brigade of the Slovenian Armed Forces has failed the NATO combat readiness test, calling into question Slovenia’s ability to fulfill its obligations to the Alliance, reports Delo.si news outlet. Slovenia is supposed to ensure the combat readiness of the 800 soldiers of the 72nd...

www.uawire.org

Or equipment not on the needed level

Are boots of Slovenian soldiers inappropriate?

Photos of almost new winter boots of Slovenian soldiers show how they started falling apart after only one week of wearing them during the NATO exercise in Norway.

www.rtvslo.si

What I mean is that probably they would get way better deal if negotiating united.

The EU has to start from the bottom up, and not from Top-Bottom, because we big players have all industries to defend making negotiations way harder.

 

[kato]

Eurospike has been contracted by the Bundeswehr to integrate Spike LR2 missiles on MELLS, with a possible switch of further deliveries from the framework contract over to the newer missile model.

The current framework contract so far has had 2,000 out of 11,500 Spike LR missiles delivered, and for the switch would not require a contract change. The integration is more of a formality in which Eurospike delivers 12 LR2 missiles, some spare parts and documentation to the Army Procurement Agency for a test firing series.
The missiles themselves are built to be compatible. MELLS is factually the current VMLS (on Puma) and ICLU (dismounted) versions of the Spike launcher.

 

[kato]

The defense committee of the parliament discussed the 100-billion project for the first time this monday in a special session with Minister of Defense Lambrecht attending. The session was of course classified Secret, so we don't really have any details from that.


One thing that the Ministry of Defense later released is that Lambrecht informed the Defense Committee how the Bundeswehr is planning for immediate procurement in light of known encrusted, slow procurement processes.

Apparently they're planning to make wide use of the exemptions granted specifically by §346 (1) TFEU at the EU level:

"any Member State may take such measures as it considers necessary for the protection of the essential interests of its security which are connected with the production of or trade in arms, munitions and war material; such measures shall not adversely affect the conditions of competition in the internal market regarding products which are not intended for specifically military purposes"

In other words they're planning to issue tenders without competition, i.e. buying directly from specific defense industry companies they choose, and they're planning to use EU law to circumvent possible legal action against that.

Due to court rulings on interpretation and application of §346 TFEU this is however effectively restricted to times of crisis mandating such procurement immediately. The government will therefore seek to reform the "regular" procurement processes as well. As a first step within their purview the Ministry of Defense wants to raise the maximum cap for goods that can be bought directly without a tender to 5,000 Euro; currently it's 1,000 Euro. Tenders between 1,000 and 5,000 Euro make up one quarter of the workload for the Procurement Agency.


Projects named to be prioritized in procurement focus on personal protective and auxiliary equipment for individual soldiers, as well as projects named in the Coalition Treaty (Tornado replacement, CH-53G replacement, armed drones are stated explicitly in the press release).

The government plans to have a draft for the 100 billion fund itself entered into legislative process before the end of the month.


The Defense Committee in this session was also informed about additional weapon delivery requests from Ukraine. These are not handled by parliament, but by the National Security Council (which consists of the Chancellor, eight ministers of relevant federal ministries and - in advisory capacity - the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr along with a few others).

 

[kato]

P.S. MoD Lambrecht has ordered Inspector General Zorn to draft a list of procurement projects to be presented to parliament in this context.

Regarding political support, the opposition CDU/CSU has announced that "if necessary" they would support the 100 bilion fund "if it is restricted to the Bundeswehr" while stating that "we will have to talk about any procurement from that" (i.e. they want a say in it). The support of CDU/CSU is necessary for the fund to be anchored in the constitution, requiring a two-thirds majority in parliament.

 

[HelBattery]

Germany may suffer serious consequences of the conflict in Ukraine in the long run.
First, they will lose the Russian markets in many areas, and the gap will be gladly filled by the Chinese or even Korea. A comeback will not be easy either because of the current rhetoric and the counter-rhetoric used in response by Russia (invoking German tanks in Ukraine and linking German fascism with the UPA).
Second, maintaining a competitive economy requires access to cheap energy and other resources.
Short-term gasoline price trend:
Benzinpreise Deutschland · Aktueller Schnitt und Preisentwicklung // Preistrend (benzinpreis-aktuell.de)
Third, building energy security bypassing Russia will take time and increase costs.
Which, combined with the declared radical increase in military spending, will challenge the budget of a country whose citizens are very committed to their social privileges. Will there be money for all this in the post-covid reality?

 

[John Fedup]

Germany may suffer serious consequences of the conflict in Ukraine in the long run.
First, they will lose the Russian markets in many areas, and the gap will be gladly filled by the Chinese or even Korea. A comeback will not be easy either because of the current rhetoric and the counter-rhetoric used in response by Russia (invoking German tanks in Ukraine and linking German fascism with the UPA).
Second, maintaining a competitive economy requires access to cheap energy and other resources.
Short-term gasoline price trend:
Benzinpreise Deutschland · Aktueller Schnitt und Preisentwicklung // Preistrend (benzinpreis-aktuell.de)
Third, building energy security bypassing Russia will take time and increase costs.
Which, combined with the declared radical increase in military spending, will challenge the budget of a country whose citizens are very committed to their social privileges. Will there be money for all this in the post-covid reality?

Germany along with most other EU members are firmly aboard the green energy train. Russia’s actions will do much the accelerate the conversion. Yes, there will short term pain. As for China gaining Russian markets, that means China gets cheaper NG for awhile. The revenue Russia gets won’t buy much and their economy will remain dormant.

 

[kato]

The Bavarian government, i.e. the opposition CSU party, has submitted a draft proposal for the senate.

They're calling for an immediate procurement programme that besides the usual (ammunition and fully equipping everything and starting the known replacement programmes):

• procurement of a "large number" of H-145M as light support helicopters (you get one guess which state Airbus Helicopters Deutschland is located in)
• equipping "present vehicles" with gun and missile armament for air defence (in parallel to re-establishing army air defense)
• procurement of long-range radars to be stationed on the NATO exterior borders
• arming the Heron TP we're running leased.

With a longer-term view (i.e. the 100-billion programme) they're mostly calling for fasttracking existing development programmes, but also:

• procurement of TLVS / MEADS.
• establishing a second air transport wing in South Germany (read: in Bavaria).
• joining the Mk III upgrade programme for Tiger while supplanting it with an off-the-shelf combat helicopter, suggested as examples are armed H-145M or AH-64.
• replacement of Tornado by F-18 or F-35 "with maintenance in Germany" (read: in Bavaria, of course).
• extending the joint submarine buy with Norway to 4 submarines for the German Navy.
• procuring "military satellites of the newest generation" for communications and reconnaissance (guess where the satellite industry is).
• establishing a fully-armed/-equipped/-staffed/-trained 50,000-man reserve in ready reserve units.

There's of course a bunch of additional political-legal stuff in there that they as conservatives demand. Recruitment in schools and such. The only notable not purely political part is that they want to legalize and establish an offensive cyber warfare capability.


The senate discussed the proposal today. "Discussed" as in the CSU presented it.

State Secretary of Defense Thomas Hitschler held a speech responding to the CSU proposal in which he basically accused the former CDU/CSU-led governments of underfunding the Bundeswehr over the last 17 years and how the current investment to counteract that underfunding will only be spent based on military requirements which are being aggregated by Inspector General Zorn (and not based on whatever list Bavaria or someone else wants).
There was some bla-bla around that but that is basically what the speech came down to. He also thanked the other states represented for not going all hard-lobby presenting similar lists to benefit their region.

The senate then deferred the above proposal to its defense committee.

 

[MarcH]

Post-factum the 2nd batch is considered highly successful and a future model (namely: ordering off-the-shelf as extension of existing contracts instead of going through the costly, time-intensive new development) both by the Navy and by the procurement agency. It's the Navy that had the idea of a third batch to replace the first batch btw.

Maybe the procurement process is considered succesful. The ships themselfes are still oversized or underarmed fat, slow targets. They are not particularly usefull in a symmetric confict in the baltic or north sea. All they are good for is coast guard duty in the med. And for that, cheaper OPV's would do.
They are just typical products of the procurement policy of the last 20 years. Only topped by the crown jewel F125.

 

[kato]

Armin Papperger, the CEO of Rheinmetall, has announced that he has made the government an offer of a comprehensive ammunition, weapons and vehicle package worth 42 billion Euro

Ralf Ketzel, CEO of KMW, has stated that he has submitted a similar offer for his company for up to 20 billion Euro, which according to his statement includes upgrades of Leopard 2, completing second tranche of Puma, RCH155 self-propelled howitzers for the to-be-established artillery expansion and Boxers with Puma turrets as fire support vehicles for medium infantry as projects the company could "realize quickly". Nothing actually new in there.

 

[kato]

Official livestreamed announcement of Tornado succession by MoD Lambrecht and InspGenLw Gerhartz 15 minutes ago (in German).

F-35 procurement for nuclear sharing function of Tornado.
Electronic Warfare to be realized with Eurofighter development.

No numbers given. There's a rumour about 35 F-35 and 15 Eurofighter ECR floating around since earlier in the day.

 

[hauritz]

Amazing how events of the last few weeks have focused the minds of the Germans. No more doing the absolute minimum required to honour its NATO commitment for aircraft capable of carrying the B61 bomb.

Canada take note.

 

[John Fedup]

Amazing how events of the last few weeks have focused the minds of the Germans. No more doing the absolute minimum required to honour its NATO commitment for aircraft capable of carrying the B61 bomb.

Canada take note.

I have but damn few others here! Almost need a missile misfire to hit Ottawa like India’s recent misfire into Pakistan for Justin and company to notice.

 

[kato]

Germany and the Netherlands are moving air defense systems, specifically Patriot, into Slovakia.

Officially the number of soldiers and systems as well as the location isn't published "for security reasons" (but fairly well-known by now since Slovakian press has disclosed these).

The publicized task of the group is to "support the NATO battlegroup" and "support NATO integrated air defense" for the purpose of "deterring possible enemies and increasing reaction levels in case alliance borders are breached".

Notionally the unit will likely (also) replace Slovakia's single S-300PMU battery to make it available for shipping to Ukraine.

The German contribution to the Czech-led battlegroup itself will be initially a medium infantry company on Boxer, later to be replaced with a mechanized infantry company on Marder. Between that company and the air defense group the German-Dutch contribution in Slovakia will be up to 900 men.

 

[swerve]

...

Official livestreamed announcement of Tornado succession by MoD Lambrecht and InspGenLw Gerhartz 15 minutes ago (in German).

F-35 procurement for nuclear sharing function of Tornado.
Electronic Warfare to be realized with Eurofighter development.

No numbers given. There's a rumour about 35 F-35 and 15 Eurofighter ECR floating around since earlier in the day.

That looks like scrapping of the F-18E idea.

F-35 only for the nuclear role presumably means still buying some new Eurofighters.

 

[kato]

That looks like scrapping of the F-18E idea.

F-35 only for the nuclear role presumably means still buying some new Eurofighters.

The F-18 concept called for 48 (Tranche 4) Eurofighters to replace the remaining Tornados.

Might now be partially re-evaluated in numbers in my opinion though, given that there's now the political option of UCAV through e.g. Eurodrone with some overlap in functionality.

 

[kato]

P.S. Apparently Airbus is "expecting" the Luftwaffe to order a further 43 Eurofighters as replacement for Tornados.

 

[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 got a contract this week to actually build a scale demonstrator for the Bundeswehr based on last year's RDRS study.

The company does have two working scale demonstrators for aerodynamics and flight control testing, with the newer one, 3.5m-length ALEDA currently undergoing its first flight test campaign. No exact size has been given for the RDRS demonstrator, but a statement that it is "about 10 times the weight" of the current ALEDA demonstrator. Since the overall shape seems to be relatively fixed down that would translate to an about 7.5 to 8.0m-length demonstrator, or by comparison close to the size of e.g. an EADS Barracuda. Polaris are planning to have it ready for a flight campaign by the end of this year.

Propulsion for the RDRS demonstrator will be turbojet engines for takeoff and landing and a reusable liquid-fuel rocket motor as its main engine. Flight test campaigns planned are centered around testing this propulsion and onboard cryogenic fuel storage in flight, as well as "automated flight and vehicle control under large shits of center of gravity" and maintenance processes.

 

[kato]

There has supposedly been a decision with regard to the "medium infantry" fire support vehicle. These vehicles replace Wiesel weapon carriers within the heavy companies of 7 battalions.

Supposedly it has now been decided to simply procure the Land 400 Boxer CRV Block II (exactly as Australia got them) in a Germanized version switching out only communications/BMS and additionally integrating a MELLS launcher - and it is planned to possibly have the first such prototype delivered within this year through a deal defering it from the production line for Australia.

Unlike Aussie use these German CRV would not be used for reconnaissance, but instead to provide direct fire support to the infantry companies of a battalion with their 30mm gun and MELLS. The heavy companies are fairly large, holding in planned layout for distribution to the infantry 12 Boxer CRV (these) + 6 Boxer JFST (separate) - and additionally a full recce platoon + a mortar platoon.

In previous planning it was intended to for now only buy 43 vehicles to equip 3 battalions and have some for training. With funding now widely available it is planned to buy 93 vehicles for all 6 active and one cadred battalion plus the training vehicles.

 

[Big_Zucchini]

Germany receives Israeli approval for the acquisition of the Arrow 3 system:

Germany gets approval for Israel's Arrow 3 missile defense system

It would mark the first time that the Arrow 3, one of Israel’s most advanced air defense systems, has been sold to another country

jpost.com

For context, the Israeli air defenses are comprised of 4 layers, to grow to 5 later this year (with introduction of laser based systems), of which the uppermost tier is Arrow 3. Germany has also debated the acquisition of other tiers like Iron Dome.

Arrow 3 is an exoatmospheric ABM system designed to defeat anything from MRBMs to ICBMs. So Germany's planned acquisition, or more precisely the debates around it, signal that Germany is first interested in a nuclear shield, and only after that air defenses against conventional threats.