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Bundeswehr recruits: The first armaments projects have already been cancelled
Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The Bundeswehr would theoretically have 100 billion euros at its disposal - if they were to be spent: The armaments industry blames the federal government for the lack of orders from the special fund for the Bundeswehr.
"To date, the number of orders received by German industry from the special fund has been negligible," Susanne Wiegand, head of the armored gear manufacturer Renk, told the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
And further: "At some point I'll ask myself: Germany, what still has to happen?" The industry needs planning security.
Wiegand is also Chair of the Safety Committee of the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
The defense policy spokesman for the Union faction, Florian Hahn (CSU), criticized: "The Bundeswehr is waiting for the purchases in all areas, but the troops simply don't get anything." The "turning point" must finally materialize: in the budget, with the staff , material, ammunition and infrastructure.
Available investment sum decreases - due to rising interest rates
Last year, the federal government launched a so-called special fund worth 100 billion euros to improve the equipment and modernization of the troops.
However, according to the Ministry of Defense, the actual investment amount could shrink further this year - according to estimates, it is already only 93 billion euros.
The first armaments projects have therefore already been canceled, and the same is threatening other projects, as reported by the "Welt am Sonntag".
However, it is not yet possible to say which investments would be eliminated in concrete terms.
"There is no need to allocate concrete procurement measures to a possible need for savings at this point in time," says the Federal Government in response to a question from Bundestag member Ingo Gädechens (CDU).
The background to the falling investment sum is rising interest rates.
The fully loan-financed special fund, which the Bundestag decided in June 2022, must bear the interest burden on the loans itself.
If these increase, there is less money available for specific purchases for the Bundeswehr.
In addition, due to the currently high inflation, the purchasing power of the remaining amount is falling.
In the fight against inflation, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been continuously raising interest rates since the summer of 2022.
This also increases the interest that the federal government has to pay for its loans in the form of federal bonds.
For many years after the financial crisis in 2008, they were of little importance compared to today - but now all the more so.
13 billion euros less?
In his request, the CDU MP Gädechens named a sum of now 13 billion euros, which allegedly had to be deducted from the 100 billion euros of the special fund.
In its reply, the Ministry of Defense did not name any specific figure beyond the already known seven billion euros in interest charges.
However, if the Ministry of Finance calculates an increase in interest rates for the 2024 federal budget, "this will be taken into account when updating the 2024 economic plan," it said.
"So all the signs are once again pointing to painful cancellations of planned purchases of weapons," Gädechens said, according to "Welt am Sonntag".
In December, the Ministry of Defense received the green light from the Bundestag for the first multi-billion dollar Bundeswehr projects, including the procurement of the F-35 stealth jet, the purchase of a new assault rifle as a successor to the G-36 and the retrofitting of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle.
In mid-January, the Ministry of Finance said that contracts for a little more than ten billion euros had been concluded so far, but no money had yet flowed.
asr/dpa