Bundeswehr: Wehrbeauftragter calls for immediate program due to lack of material

Helicopters, transport planes, fighter jets, tanks - the list of non-operational Bundeswehr machines is long. The Federal Armed Forces Commissioner, Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD), calls on Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) to act quickly and equip the troops better. It needs a "liberation".

Specifically, Bartels wishes in the "World on Sunday" an "immediate program for the procurement of missing equipment from protective vests to night vision devices to spare parts". This year's report on the material readiness of the Bundeswehr had shown that the operational readiness of important weapon systems is considerably limited. (Read the details here).

Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to use the Bundeswehr more abroad than before. The minister and CDU chairwoman had told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" that in the future Germany must "openly deal with the fact that we - like every other country in the world - have their own strategic interests."

"Equipment decides life and death"

The chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, Lieutenant Colonel Andre Wüstner, warns, however, of more missions - because of the lack of material. He now said to Welt am Sonntag: "At the sharp end of our profession, our equipment decides - qualitatively and quantitatively - about life or death." He supports the idea of ​​an immediate program for the rapid procurement of equipment.