The State of German Military Readiness

It is actually worse today, than when Russia invaded Ukraine. What would it take for Germans to get serious about their own defense? ‘50% battle-ready’: Germany misses military targets despite Scholz’s overhaul

Since I was revisiting past posts on German military readiness, I thought a new post was in order.

It has been a couple of years since I looked at the state of German Military, but with all the talk of Europe "stepping up" to defend Ukraine, and provide for their own defense, I though it would be good to take a look. You don't have to look too hard to see that Germany is not interested in paying for its own defense.

"Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we had eight brigades at around 65% readiness," Colonel Andre Wuestner, head of the German Armed Forces Association, told Reuters in an interview. Sending weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine, as well as accelerating Germany's own drills, took a toll on the available equipment, he said.

"Together, this means the German land forces are down to a readiness of around 50%," he said.

Because purchasing weapons, and paying for training costs money, and the one constant is that Modern Germany doesn't want to spend money on defense. They see that as America's job.

Berlin has failed to fully equip troops for a division for NATO by the start of this year, and in any case has no air defences to support them, the sources said.

Its pledge for a NATO division by 2027 is "long out of our reach," said a military source.

Germany retired an air-defense tank in 2012, despite the fact that its replacement won't be operational for a couple of years at least. This leaves the ground troops they do have with no air support against planes or drones. They are also short a bunch of 155mm howitzers. Some were sent to Ukraine, but several batches of required weapons have not been ordered. There is info on the state of the guns, or lack of guns, there is no info on available ammunition for those howitzers. Modern warfare is an exercise in logistics.

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