According to a media report, Bundeswehr soldiers have to wait for new boots - much longer than planned. This emerges from a response by the Ministry of Defense to a request from the FDP member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, reported on the "Tagesspiegel". "The full implementation of the new Armed Forces Combat Shoe System is currently scheduled to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2022," it said.
According to the report, all members of the armed forces were supposed to have been given new shoes by the end of 2020. "Due to limited production capacity of the industry, however, this time approach could not be maintained," it said on request of the newspaper from the Ministry. How many members of the German Armed Forces already have new shoes today, said the responsible spokeswoman, according to "Tagesspiegel" not. Thus, "currently only a few" have a complete new combat boot set.
"No question of fashion"
The change from the "year-round shoe" to two pairs of the "fighting shoe, heavy" and a pair of the "fighting shoe, light" is planned for the newspaper report since 2016. According to the letter to Strack-Zimmermann, more than 160,000 of the nearly 183,000 soldiers now have a first pair of heavy, black combat boots - but the second one is still missing. The light shoe therefore has only just over 31,000 soldiers.
Strack-Zimmermann criticized that the equipment of the entire troupe with the new shoes last so long. "After all, that's not about fashion, it's about security," said the defense politician. "Imagine firefighters extinguishing fires in slippers."