Defense Minister Pistorius wants to upgrade and retrofit the Bundeswehr. But that is not fast enough for several politicians.
Government parties and the opposition have sharply criticized the sluggish procurement of ammunition for the Bundeswehr. “More should have been done in 2022 to fill our camps,” Green Party defense politician Sara Nanni told Welt am Sonntag. It was “dramatic that it’s going so slowly”. CDU budget politician Ingo Gädechens also expressed criticism. He has the impression that the Ministry of Defense wants to “push away” the issue of ammunition.
The fact that “no more happened under Minister Christine Lambrecht” was “ignorant and irresponsible,” said the chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), while SPD MP Andreas Schwarz is now helping to speed things up of ammunition procurement.
“The bureaucracy is still a problem,” said Schwarz. At too many desks, people “simply manage themselves” and “get in each other’s way”. “Clear structures are part of the solution,” added Schwarz.
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Planned purchase of guided missiles
According to the media report, the procurement of missing ammunition for the Bundeswehr has so far made only sluggish progress. As the newspaper reports, citing documents from the Federal Ministry of Defense, only one procurement proposal for more than 25 million euros from this area was approved by the Bundestag Budget Committee this year. It therefore concerned the planned purchase of guided missiles for anti-aircraft defense of frigates.
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According to internal project planning, Boris Pistorius’ SPD-led Defense Ministry wants to submit further submissions to the Bundestag by July, including a framework agreement for maneuver ammunition and projectiles for the Panzerhaubitze 2000. The ministry also wants “a large number of submissions” by the end of the year an order value of over 25 million euros in the Bundestag.
There are also apparently problems with the procurement of Bundeswehr material that has been handed over to the Ukraine. According to a list available to the newspaper, the Ukrainian armed forces received a total of 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition from the Bundeswehr between spring and September 2022. As a replacement, only 14.6 million shots arrived at the Bundeswehr in the same year, the Ministry of Defense told “Welt am Sonntag”.
