{"id":26659,"date":"2018-02-21T17:11:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T17:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/21\/germanys-armed-forces-are-in-bad-shape-report-finds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:17:08","slug":"germanys-armed-forces-are-in-bad-shape-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/21\/germanys-armed-forces-are-in-bad-shape-report-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s armed forces are in bad shape, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COLOGNE, Germany \u2015 The German armed forces continue to be plagued by serious equipment and personnel shortages despite a major effort begun in 2016 to turn a corner, according to the annual report by the parliamentary commissioner for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/16\/the-bundeswehr-famously-bureaucratic-wants-to-charm-technology-startups\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" style=\"\" target=\"_blank\">the Bundeswehr<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The assessment comes just days after Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen vowed before senior international leaders at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Munich Security Conference<\/a> that Berlin would follow through on its European Union and NATO commitment for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/16\/german-defense-chief-denounces-trump-era-focus-on-militarism\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">militarily stronger Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report by Hans-Peter Bartels, of the Social Democratic Party, says Germany will be hard-pressed to meet a NATO-wide defense spending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/17\/germany-and-two-percent-for-defense-its-complicated\/\">target of 2 percent of gross domestic product<\/a> by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for full coverage of the Munich Security Conference.<\/a><\/b><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the defense budget is slated to grow from \u20ac37 billion (U.S. $46 billion) in 2017 to \u20ac42.4 billion in 2021, the percentage of GDP would remain constant at 1.2 percent, given Germany\u2019s projected economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAdditional efforts are necessary,\u201d Bartels wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/17\/how-lindsey-graham-came-to-embrace-a-european-army\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20180216_MSC2018_panel_3897.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How Lindsey Graham came to embrace a European army<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">For Graham, the prospect of Europeans putting renewed energy into their own defense, financially and ideologically, trumps the potential drawback of diluting Western military capabilities.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, managerial problems, not a lack of money, are to blame for the ongoing crisis, according to the commissioner. Programs that fail to deliver, undeployable equipment and a shortage of spare parts have led to tanks not running, planes not flying and units having to borrow rifles from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, none of the six submarines was able to sail at the end of 2017, and flights of the A-400M airlifter are routinely canceled because few of the 14 aircraft work. On land, outages in the Leopard 2 battle tanks have reached a \u201ccritical mark,\u201d with only 95 of 244 vehicles ready for deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gen. Volker Wieker, Germany\u2019s chief of defense, told reporters in Berlin that despite equipment shortages, Germany would field the necessary personnel and equipment in time to lead the brigade-sized, multinational NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, which is due June 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Germany has more than 15,000 soldiers deployed in 20 operations worldwide. Those units, Wieker argued, are unaffected by any shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have heard no complaints from within Germany or from our allies that they aren\u2019t doing an outstanding job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The assessment comes just days after the defense minister vowed that Berlin would follow through on its European Union and NATO commitment for a militarily stronger Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":120,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,162,46,11,36,30,120],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3425],"class_list":["post-26659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-daily","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-smr","category-munich-security-forum"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EQQK6D7LLFDB7HMTPRVET7AUJA","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/munich-security-forum\/2018\/02\/21\/germanys-armed-forces-are-in-bad-shape-report-finds\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Germany\u2019s armed forces are in bad shape, report finds - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The assessment comes just days after the defense minister vowed that Berlin would follow through on its European Union and NATO commitment for a militarily stronger Europe.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Germany\u2019s armed forces are in bad shape, report finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The assessment comes just days after the defense minister vowed that Berlin would follow through on its European Union and NATO commitment for a 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