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Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: "A high level of commitment already in peacetime is essential"
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
The Bundeswehr is to have a national command from April 2022.
The project is one of Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's plans to restructure the Bundeswehr.
The CDU politician is striving for faster operational readiness, fewer management staff and better financing of the troops.
According to a key issues paper on the future of the Bundeswehr that Kramp-Karrenbauer and General Inspector Eberhard Zorn presented at a press conference in Berlin, the command command should control operations from Berlin and Bonn from administrative assistance and support in the event of disasters to national defense.
Kramp-Karrenbauer emphasized that the key issues paper was not about a major Bundeswehr reform of the old style.
The paper contained contributions to the discussion, investigations, specifications and recommendations on the structure of the Bundeswehr.
Troop reductions and site closings are not planned.
So-called “forces of the first hour” should be able to be deployed quickly “especially at the external borders of the alliance” - that is, NATO -, according to the paper.
What is required are "cold start capability, high reactivity and assertiveness" against enemy weapon systems.
"A high level of readiness for action in peacetime is essential."
According to the paper entitled "Key points for the Bundeswehr of the future", the army must also prepare for "contributing to international crisis management over longer periods of time with troop contingents".
It will have to "make a contribution to the ability to react quickly to international crises", especially at NATO, the EU and the United Nations.
The Bundeswehr must also be able to lead such units.
Completion planned by 2025
In view of the lack of or outdated equipment of the troops and the need for large investments, Kramp-Karrenbauer calls for longer-term and better financing.
She described a Bundeswehr planning law as desirable in order to set the "framework for a long-term and guaranteed increase in the defense budget."
The formulated projects should "go beyond the term of office of the current federal government," said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Since the current legislative period - and thus possibly also Kramp-Karrenbauer's term in office in the Ministry of Defense - only lasts a few months, it would hardly be possible to complete the desired changes within this period.
In fact, the paper states that the measures are expected to be completed in 2025.
asc / dpa / AFP