The Federal Cabinet will decide on Wednesday, the extension of the anti-IS operation of the Bundeswehr. This emerges from a letter from Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to the chairmen of the Bundestag factions, which is available to SPIEGEL. It's about the Tornado aircraft, which uses their high-resolution cameras to create situation pictures for the international coalition against the IS. In addition, German soldiers train Iraqi security forces.
The use of tornadoes and air refueling is to be extended by the will of the government for five months. "The provision of airborne reconnaissance and air refueling is an elementary, mission-critical component of the international anti-IS coalition," it states. "The draft mandate therefore provides for an extension of these capabilities by 31 March 2020."
Actually, the use of tornadoes should end on October 31st. This was what Kramp-Karrenbauers predecessor Ursula von der Leyen had promised the SPD. However, the Leyen had never seriously attempted to replace the German tornadoes with other nations. "A replacement of these capabilities by another nation could not be ensured so far," it says in the letter to the group chairmen. However, the Department of Defense will intensify its "efforts to replace these capabilities," said the two ministers.
This sentence should act primarily as a tranquilizer for Rolf Mützenich, the acting chairman of the SPD faction in the Bundestag. The longtime foreign politician had initially vehemently opposed an extension of the German tornado mission. It was not until the beginning of September that things got moving.
At a meeting in the evening of the state elections of Brandenburg and Saxony, Maas and the acting SPD chairman succeeded in wresting a compromise from Mützenich. As a group leader, he could not only pull through his foreign policy agenda, but must also take into account the interests of the government, argued the SPD leadership. Mützenich then agreed to an extension of the Tornado mandate, but not more than five months.
