The German military, or Bundeswehr, is in the top ten most powerful armies in the world. Likewise, Germany has owing to her vast wealth stores, heavy technology and industrial sectors, and efficiency that characterizes her history, the ability remilitarize very fast if she wanted to. She essentially has all the equipment, tools, and parts, but just needs to change one set of tooling for another, from business goods to war goods.
The rise of Germany as a political power, given that she is already the economic heart of Europe, means the potential for a major increase in militarization. This is something that is a concern because while all nations have the need to defend themselves, Germany has a very long, established, and bad history of turning against other peoples in Europe and abusing them. One needs only to remember that it was out of the Germanic lands that the Roman Empire fell and was the crucible from which was born three of the most horrendous conflicts in human history which are the Thirty Years War, World War I, and World War II. Given that the world is dangerously close to another major global conflict, with the economic system based on the dollar being undermined and political instability becoming commonplace, Germany will be very important to watch, and especially how she develops her military.
It is of great interest then how Germany is now declaring that she wants to build up her military, saying that it is functioning only at half capacity.
74 percent of the weapon systems ready for use? Federal Armed Forces Association chief André Wüstner accuses the Ministry of Defense of “absurd” calculations. He attested politics a loss of credibility, the “once proud people’s party” SPD a sad surrender.
Since 2013, Lieutenant Colonel André Wüstner, 46, has been chairman of the German Armed Forces Association – and thus the interests of around 200,000 armed forces employees.
André Wüstner: The capabilities of the armed forces. They are fed by the interplay of modern material and motivated staff. Only with full material and personal strength, appropriate training and practice, armed forces are able to fulfill their mission – that is, they are ready for action. That is the core, measured against the political mandate.
WORLD: So the Bundeswehr is approaching its top form materially? The Ministry of Defense has just announced that the main weapon systems are 74 percent operational.
W: Such reports irritate the troops and paint the wrong picture in society. Because these 74 percent are based on absurd calculation models and have nothing to do with the daily reality in the troop. Whether in a naval flotilla, a division of the army or an air force squadron: everywhere men and women still manage the shortage, despite all the trend reversals that were declared politically many years ago.
Politicians have rightly recognized that the global risks and threats to our security require the Bundeswehr to be fully equipped. But that’s a maximum of 50 percent. With some systems, like helicopters or the old tornadoes, things are worse because the situation is precarious. (source)
Considering that Germany is the ninth most powerful military in the world, if she is such only at 50% capacity, what will she look like at, perhaps, 80%?
Germany is coming back and she knows it as does many, yet with so many who do not realize what is happening, when she does reappear as a major force in world politics, it will most likely come as a shock to the globe. Given that there is already talk in NATO, led by Germany, about arming drones and using them in combat, one can see that the future does not hold the peace brought by the Americans as it has been for about the last seventy-five years, but rather more preparations for war of the same nature but to a most likely more destructive end.
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