As NATO races to supply Ukraine before Trump takes office, Europe is struggling to touch two percent of its GDP on defence expenditure while Russia plans to spend more than 32 percent of its national budget on its military.
The strategy paper that is said to be an evolving, ‘living document,’ includes ‘detailed plans’ for eventualities that range from defending Germany to deterring Russian manoeuvres on NATO’s eastern flank and anticipates that Germany might have to become a ‘hub for tens or hundreds of thousands of troops’ that have to be transported east, besides logistics for war materiel.
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.
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.”
The order is for a turnkey factory that will become a ‘Ukrainian Centre of Excellence for Ammunition’ to be operated by a Rheinmetall joint venture with a Ukrainian state-owned company, that will begin production within 24 months to manufacture hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition per year.
“The Russian army increases its number of tanks by 1,000 to 1,500 additional units every year. The five largest European NATO member states together have just half of that in their inventory,” said Germany’s chief of defence Carsten Breuer.
Scholz’s coalition has faced criticism over the small increase in the 2025 budget for defence. “In 2017, we still spent €37 billion ($42 billion) on defence. Now, with the use of the special fund, the Bundeswehr‘s budget is €75 billion. That’s more or less a doubling,” Scholz said.
Economic researchers and partners in the ruling coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz have warned of immense economic costs and legal difficulties that could result from plans for military conscription proposed by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in June in an attempt to boost the numbers of the German armed forces.
German military spending is set to increase by only EUR 1.2 billion (USD 1.3 billion) under the terms of the preliminary 2025 national budget agreed on Friday, far below the demands of Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
The Bundeswehr says it plans to commission up to 6,500 Unprotected Transport Vehicles over the next seven years, with an agreement for the production and production of transport vehicles in the load classes 3.5 tonnes, 5 tonnes and 15 tonnes by the Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicle (RMMV) GmbH company in an order that could be worth up to EUR 3.5 billion.
400,000 people will have to complete a questionnaire each year, and some 40,000 candidates could then take part in the physical mandatory physical check-up call-up. Pistorius stressed that he anticipates only summoning those who indicate a voluntary interest.
Scholz said he was “strongly in favour of maintaining and expanding production capacities. That is why we will order 20 more Eurofighters in this legislative period, in addition to the 38 aircraft that are currently still in the pipeline.”
The German Ministry of Defence said in order to “compete for the best minds, the use of TikTok is indispensable”. Special measures are being introduced for the use of TikTok. These include the technical separation between the Bundeswehr‘s networks and the TikTok platform. Dedicated end devices should be used without access to the Bundeswehr‘s IT structure. TikTok software is still neither authorized nor technically possible on official IT.
Scholz: “At best, it’s the start of a process that could lead to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. In Switzerland, it will be about the safety of nuclear power plants, grain exports, the issue of prisoner exchanges and the necessary taboo on the use of nuclear weapons. Once again, this is all still in its infancy.”
