The Bundeswehr is allowed to procure new military equipment worth 50 billion euros. The Bundestag Budget Committee has approved corresponding arms contracts. This is the most extensive armaments decision of its kind in the history of the Bundeswehr.
Of the armaments projects that have now been approved, expenditure on clothing and personal protective equipment for soldiers makes up the largest item at 20 billion euros. Four billion euros are also being invested in ordering another 200 Puma armored personnel carriers. A similar amount of money flows in the Arrow 3 missile defense systemtwo billion euros are to be spent on the Patriot air defense system. Air defense will also be strengthened with missiles for Iris-T defense systems.
Satellite reconnaissance, torpedoes and air-to-air missiles
The arms company Rheinmetall also receives an order for a satellite-based reconnaissance system. The volume for the system called “Spock” is initially 1.8 billion euros. It is intended to provide the Bundeswehr’s new 45th Panzer Brigade, which will be stationed in Lithuania, with reconnaissance data. Additional funds will go towards Meteor air-to-air missiles, torpedoes for the new U-212 submarine class, protected medical vehicles and reconnaissance and support vehicles.
“We mean it seriously when we say that we are equipping our Bundeswehr to be efficient and resilient and to do so as quickly as possible,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) about the new spending. “And we mean it when we keep telling our citizens and our allies: We take responsibility and you can rely on us.” The expenditure is not an end in itself, but rather serves to “fully establish the Bundeswehr’s deterrence and defense capability.”
Almost 200 billion euros within three years
According to the Ministry of Defense, defense spending totaled 83 billion euros this year, which went into 103 major procurement projects. In the past three years, 188 billion euros have been released for defense contracts. For comparison: According to the ministry, in the previous eight years from 2015 to 2022, the total volume of all orders was 109 billion euros. The Budget Committee must approve orders with a volume of more than 25 million euros per piece.
The background to the major investments is the planned expansion of the Bundeswehr from currently around 184,000 active soldiers 260,000 and 200,000 reservists until 2035. For the largest item of personal equipment, the Budget Committee approved the equipment for 460,000 soldiers and 80,000 civilians in the Bundeswehr – i.e. already for the Bundeswehr’s target size. Minister Pistorius justified the forward-looking procurement by saying that the recruits could not be “put in jogging suits”.
