The Bundeswehr had a strength of 181,150 soldiers at the end of 2024, falling short of previous recruiting targets. NATO member states are to be assigned new national targets for their military capabilities, including weaponry, that are expected to be increased by around 30%.
Figures from the Germany’s Economy Ministry show arms exports to Israel worth €485 million between October 7, 2023 and May 13, 2025, as a new poll shows a majority of Germans support suspending arms exports to Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Germany’s Federal Court of Audit warned that a ‘signal of unlimited willingness to incur debt’ could lead prices in defence industry to soar, with incentives for industry to charge higher prices for the same services due to ‘almost unlimited availability of financial resources and increased demand.’
The German military has stationed a permanent presence abroad for the first time since the Second World War with the activation of a new brigade in Lithuania that will number 5,000 and with headquarters near the Belarusian border.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius outlined a plan for Germany to increase military expenditure as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.2 percentage points per year over a period of seven years.
According to Helsing, hundreds of SG-1 Fathoms can be deployed with the Lura AI software platform by a single operator to autonomously detect threats at 10% of the cost of crewed Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) patrols.
At the end of the 2023/2024 financial year, the order backlog stood at €11.7 billion, but the figure has now risen to €18 billion after significant orders from Germany and Singapore.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “has long since switched completely to a war economy,” and the country is currently producing as many weapons and ammunition in three months as the entire European Union does in a year, Pistorius said.
Damage to submarine communication cables between new NATO members Finland and Sweden and their alliance partners Germany and Lithuania was likely sabotage, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. “No one believes that these cables were cut by mistake,” Pistorius said in Brussels at an EU defence ministers meeting to discuss the different threats facing the European Union.
Shortly before the conversation with Putin, however, Scholz also reiterated in remarks to parliament that Germany would not supply Ukraine with the long-range Taurus cruise missiles, which Ukraine has repeatedly requested.
An analysis of the military capabilities of the Western alliance and Russia “leaves no doubt about NATO’s overall military superiority.” Only in terms of nuclear weapons do the two sides have parity, concluded the study’s authors.
In the September survey, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius’ (SPD) proposal to increase defence spending to 3% to 3.5% of the gross domestic product received 50% approval, while 15% said that was too low.
No signals have as yet been received from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on resuming dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite statements to the effect by Scholz, according to the Kremlin.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted Germany to revisit its defence posture, which increasingly suffered from a lack of investment since the end of the Cold War as imminent threats appeared to diminish. The legislation must now pass through Germany’s two houses of parliament. It could come into force in May of next year.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that the Bundeswehr needs around €58 billion ($63 billion) in 2025 to quickly close capability gaps. “As things stand, we will be allocated around €52 billion”, he said, adding, “That means we will be short of almost €6 billion next year.”
