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| Europe |
| Spurred by Russian threat, Germany |
| 2022-06-04 |
One of these days they’ll stop taking bows for finally meeting military spending promises at least a generation old, and finally start actually doing it. [IsraelTimes] Move will push Berlin to meet NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... defense spending target after years of criticism, and transform neglected Bundeswehr into Europe’s largest military. The German parliament voted on Friday for a constitutional amendment to create a special 100 billion euro ($107 billion) fund to rearm the German military and modernize its outdated equipment over the next few years. Deputies of the Bundestag lower house approved the measure 567 votes to 96 with 20 abstentions after the center-left-led government and the conservative opposition agreed that defense spending would meet the 2% target "on a multi-year average," with help from the special fund. The watershed move answers years of criticism from close allies that Berlin was failing to achieve NATO’s target of spending two percent of GDP on defense. The Bundesrat upper house, which represents Germany’s state governments, must still approve the measure. The opposition insisted during negotiations with Scholz’s coalition that the fund be used exclusively for the Bundeswehr, rather than go toward other things related to national security, such as aid to stabilizing poor countries or civilian cyber-defense measures. The bulk of the German investment — 40.9 billion euros — will go toward the air force with the acquisition of 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets to replace aging Tornado aircraft, 15 Eurofighter jets and 60 Chinook CH-47F transport helicopters, made by Boeing. Nearly 20 billion euros will be earmarked for the navy, mainly for new corvettes, frigates and a 212-model submarine. More than 16 billion euros will beef up the army’s holdings with Marder transport tanks and Fuchs armored troop carriers. The exceptional fund will be financed by additional debt. For that it was necessary to circumvent the "debt brake" rule enshrined in the constitution, which caps government borrowing. This was why the government needed the support of the conservative opposition to muster the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to pass the constitutional amendment. Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has significantly reduced the military from around 500,000 in 1990 to just 200,000 today. Fewer than 30 percent of German naval ships were "fully operational" according to a report published December on the state of the military. Many of the country’s fighter aircraft are unfit to fly. And then there are the shortages of vehicle spare parts, not to mention bullets I understand a colorful collection is now available. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |