Between January 01, 2024 and June 18, 2024, the German government approved a total of weapons exports worth at least EUR 7.48 billion (USD 8.01 billion), up 30 percent from the first half of last year, with some 65 percent of the exports, worth EUR 4.88 billion, destined for Ukraine.
A new NATO overview says the record €90.6B on defence expenditure, to which Berlin committed for the first time this year, corresponds to a 2.12 percent share of the forecast German GDP, and is higher than expected at the beginning of the year.
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.
NATO allies are planning to launch a new project in support of Kiev, dubbed “NATO Mission Ukraine“, at their next summit in Washington. The German government is reportedly concerned that designating the project a mission could be understood as NATO planning to send troops to Ukraine, and prefers the name, “Pledge Assistance Coordination Training” – or “PACT“.
Ralf Ketzel, managing director of KNDS, manufacturer of Leopard 2 battle tanks, said,”The ability to deliver quickly is now exhausted,” adding, “Two years ago, a strategic decision should have been made that this will be a war lasting several years. Then we could deliver new material today,” in reference to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė said Rheinmetall would invest more than €180 million ($195 million) in the new plant, which is expected to produce 155-millimetre artillery shells. Rheinmetall is already active in Lithuania, operating a maintenance centre with defence company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann in the country since 2022. The facility maintains combat vehicles used by NATO combat units stationed in the region, as well as Leopard 2 battle tanks given by Germany to Ukraine.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck: “Ukraine does not have enough defensive weapons to protect the lives of its people. It is only logical that Ukraine should defend itself by being able to prevent attacks from Russia. Prohibiting it from doing so would mean the death of more people.”
Pistorius said that military spending should be excluded from the so-called debt brake rules that are written into Germany’s constitution, which were added to the German constitution in 2009, and only allow the government to rely on borrowing for deficit spending under certain conditions.
The €100 billion ($107 billion) special fund created to update
Germany’s military after Russia invaded its neighbour in 2022 will be used up in a few years, Lindner said.
The armed forces will then have to be upgraded from regular funds. But this won’t be possible with a limited budget and
ever-growing debt, the finance minister went on.
Germany stopped selling weapons to Saudi Arabia over the war on Yemen’s Houthi militia. It has now started selling weapons to Saudi Arabia again, to intercept missile attacks from the same Houthis aimed at Israel.
The acquisition of the S-400, differing points of view on the war in Ukraine, eye-watering costs, a domestic 5th gen fighter program and never having operated any U.S. fighter aircraft are some of the reasons why India can’t and shouldn’t consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Eight of the F-35A fighters intended for Turkey will now be acquired by the USAF in an order that also includes six additional F-35A aircraft, for an order worth USD 861.73 million.
Progress is scarce on a resolution to the Ladakh stand-off
Australia plans to hike defence spending
NATO allies France and Turkey have had a row
Finland’s air force has discarded its old insignia
Germany has disbanded a special forces unit over right wing extremism
The foreign office consultation was significant not only as it comes a bit over a week before the UN General Assembly session but at a time when US Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is on a visit to the region.
Many in the Indian security establishment believe India’s concerns about the post-2014 situation in Afghanistan will soon force it to make some hard choices and New Delhi will need to do more to protect its interests.
