As of: March 25, 2024, 3:33 p.m
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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The backbone of the medium forces: the “GTK Boxer”.
The Bundeswehr has now ordered 123 new wheeled armored vehicles from Rheinmetall.
© IMAGO / photo library
The new Boxer troop transport will be rolling out next year – a tailwind for the defense industry.
Since the beginning of the war, their image has improved significantly.
Berlin – “It’s hard for me to say this is an industry of the future, but it simply is,” says Manfred Schlumberger.
The asset manager complains to the broadcaster
n-tv
that the Ukraine war made it clear to everyone that more should be invested in armaments than before;
“Whether we want it or not,” says Schlumberger.
The military conflict has become a growth turbocharger for the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
The share, which was available for around 100 euros before Vladimir Putin's attack, is now
seen as having the potential for more than 500 euros, according to
Manager Magazine .
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) played his part in this.
Pistorius has now ordered 123 new wheeled armored vehicles GTK Boxer (armored transport vehicle) from the Düsseldorf company Rheinmetall - in official German the “Heavy Weapons Carrier Infantry”;
The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag approved the proposal on March 20, 2024, thereby releasing around 2.7 billion euros from the special fund for the Bundeswehr.
Delivery is scheduled to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2030, and the price also includes services.
New challenge: War in Ukraine calls for a Bundeswehr on wheels
The “Heavy Weapons Carrier Infantry” replaces the Wiesel tracked vehicle for direct tactical fire support of the infantry units.
It is also a core element of the German Army's new force category, i.e. the “Medium Forces”.
These are characterized by their ability to be deployed quickly over long distances and thus contribute to credible national and alliance defense, as the Bundeswehr puts it.
In the next conflict, the Bundeswehr will not fight against the Taliban or against Islamists in Mali, but rather between states, as is currently being waged by Vladimir Putin using the example of the war in Ukraine.
The first step in this direction was the Federal Government's initiative to establish a multinational brigade with a Bundeswehr core permanently stationed in Lithuania from this year onwards.
A second component of rapid reaction should be the “hybrid” medium forces in addition to the light forces, i.e. those that react most quickly, and the powerful heavy forces;
for example that of Brigade 21 - their highlight: movement on wheels instead of on a chain.
Such a brigade includes around 5,600 soldiers.
Three of these brigades are planned, one of which is Brigade 21, which is widely distributed across the entire Federal Republic.
“Today it is much easier to fill a vacancy at a defense company than at a meat processor.”
Headhunter Neele Riemann in Wirtschaftswoche
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Their goal: to delay the enemy until NATO has moved in with the majority of its troops.
As the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
writes: “This is how these infantry forces should be: more heavily armed than reconnaissance or fighter battalions, but again not as weighty as the Panzergrenadiers with their Puma infantry fighting vehicles or the tank battalions equipped with Leopard 2s.” The wheeled tank will be the weapon carrier Boxers are armed with a heavy machine cannon.
The advantage of this combat vehicle is that it can move on its own axis and, in contrast to armored tracked vehicles, does not require additional logistics, because the routes to the enemy will become longer.
New heart of the Bundeswehr: The Jägerbataillon 91 from Rotenburg/Wümme
According to the Bundeswehr, a medium forces brigade consists of a Panzergrenadier battalion (Rad), two fighter battalions and a reconnaissance, artillery, engineer and supply battalion.
The leadership capability of the brigade staff is guaranteed by a staff and supply company and a telecommunications company.
In the future, wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, wheeled howitzers, wheel-based mortar systems, transport tanks, wheeled engineer capabilities and other wheel-based systems will have to be available in all military branches.
Only if all the capabilities of an operational brigade are available on a wheel-based basis can the medium-sized forces quickly become effective in the right place.
The Panzerbrigade 21 “Lipperland” is the first brigade of the German Army to be assigned to the new “Medium Forces” force category.
With its wheeled, highly mobile units, the brigade is capable of rapid and extensive deployment throughout NATO's European operational area.
Thanks to its high mobility, firepower and armor protection, the large unit can be used particularly flexible, versatile, quickly and effectively.
In the
Bundeswehr Journal
, former army officer Waldemar Geiger writes that the wheel-based Boxer is intended to replace the small, track-driven, air-landable Wiesel and thereby give the infantry more assertiveness in combat.
New speed: Bundeswehr wants to be at the front in the Boxer three times as fast as on chains
Panzerbrigade 21 “Lipperland” will be the first brigade in the new medium forces category.
Its headquarters is in Augustdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, and other battalions are in Ahlen, Holzminden, Schwarzenborn, Rotenburg (Wümme), Torgelow and Unna.
On its website, the Bundeswehr
describes
the Jägerbataillon 1 in Schwarzenborn, Hesse, as the heart of the new brigade;
This has been part of Panzerbrigade 21 since the summer of 2015, as well as the Jägerbataillon 91 from Rotenburg/Wümme and the Jägerbataillon 413 from Torgelow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The combat support units in Unna, Holzminden and Ahlen remain part of the Medium Forces Brigade from Augustdorf.
In the future, an artillery unit and army air defense forces will strengthen the brigade's combat effectiveness.
According to Geiger, in a first step, each battalion should receive twelve of these new “Heavy Weapon Carrier Infantry” combat vehicles, i.e. four per platoon.
“A fighter battalion would then have 26 of these vehicles.
Four heavy weapons carriers organically present in each of the three combat companies for direct tactical fire support as well as 14 weapons carriers in the heavy company, which can either reinforce the combat companies or form their own maneuver element.
Light, medium, heavy – the new forces of the Bundeswehr
The implementation of the Federal Government's obligations to NATO, which apply from 2025, and the Bundeswehr's refocusing on national and alliance defense, which began in 2014, led to structural adjustments in three categories with different characteristics:
Light forces
(e.g. infantry): poorly protected against enemy action, air mobile and quick to deploy in the air, effective at short range against light enemy forces;
Medium forces
(grenadiers on wheeled tanks): strongly protected against enemy action, self-mobile;
directly and indirectly effective at a distance;
Heavy forces
(battle tank): strongest protection, difficult to deploy, strongest effect.
5,500 people belonged to the brigade, which is then distributed across eight locations in four federal states.
Speed should be their trademark.
The specialist magazine
Soldier & Technology
calculates: independently deployable forces on wheels are able to reach a destination around 600 kilometers away by road in 10.5 hours.
In the same time, tracked vehicles can only travel 195 kilometers, i.e. only a third.
It would take more than 30 hours to drive the entire 600 kilometers on a chain.
Even if the tracked vehicles were loaded onto heavy-duty transporters, it would take around 20 hours, as loading and unloading and securing the vehicles for road transport take a lot of time.
In addition, the troops would be dependent on external help, i.e. transport vehicles, which would have to be available in the appropriate type and number.
Transport on rails takes up most of the time anyway, is inflexible and vulnerable to attacks.
The boxer makes this possible, the defense industry reflects this pace.
In 2011,
Ingenieur
magazine wrote about the conflicts of conscience of young aspiring engineers who were flirting with certain industries: “Their jobs suffer from a certain ugh factor, but they are actually ugh: engineers who specialize in nuclear, defense or genetic engineering are in international demand "But because of these industries, they often don't have a very good reputation in society." Due to the Bundeswehr's ambitious plans, the industry has what it takes to become a German job engine.
According to the Tagesschau
, Rheinmetall had 108,000 applicants in 2023 to fill around 5,000 vacancies at the various European locations.
The
Wirtschaftswoche
even reported 169,000 applicants from all over the world in 2022, but there is still a shortage of well-trained engineers and designers.
According to Wirtschaftswoche,
the Hamburg headhunter Neele Riemann from the Hamburg personnel consultancy Hapeko has
long felt the tailwind for the defense industry - she says: "Today it is much easier to fill a vacancy at a defense company than at a meat processor." Nevertheless, the military remains double-edged sword among young people.
In August 2022, an anonymous user asked young economists in a forum whether he might even ruin his future by joining Rheinmetall.
Opinions remained divided and were sometimes crystal clear, as another anonymous user replied: “So, if you don't have a moral compass, you don't care what your future employers, friends and family think of you and you want to close many doors to yourself, then go for it.
Otherwise, leave it alone because money isn’t everything.”