The German Bundeswehr is still underequipped, understaffed and overly bureaucratic, a new parliamentary report has revealed.
The Germans are considered a very strong ally both to the US and to Europe as a whole when it comes to backing the continent in conflicts. Reports like this may shift that perception back towards France and the UK taking lions’ shares back in the division of European defense.
German soldiers sometimes have to rely on civilian helicopters to transport them around in Afghanistan, while vital equipment such as body armor has to be borrowed, according to the new parliamentary Bundeswehr report presented on Tuesday. – DW.com
The biggest problem that Bundeswehr soldiers complained about was the lack of equipment, despite repeated government promises, dating back to a 2014 NATO summit, of a change in direction.
This same time last year the German’s were citing a lack of equipment, even as the began to take over the European eastern readiness front. Officials claimed the Bundeswehr would be ready to meet their obligations and all necessary equipment would be procured… but at this point is it just a song and dance?
And what does that mean for us here in the US? Simple, as NATO’s serious force projection element any conflict the German’s cannot shoulder will very likely become our problem. Unless a European ally can bolster and cover Bundeswehr forces enough to solve it on a smaller scale it will be US Calvary once again riding across a hill.
