For the present Wehrmacht, simply increasing military spending will not quickly boost combat effectiveness.
According to the German“Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung” website reported on September 9, Germany will be decades before it has the ability to war.
When the Russian-ukrainian conflict broke out in February 2022, German army chief Alfons Maisse admitted that the Bundeswehr was “Pretty much empty”, the report said. Germany has saved an estimated $400bn-$600bn in military spending over the past three decades. This“Peace dividend” has led to sharp cuts in military equipment.
In 2021, the German Army reportedly had about 340 MBT, which is only 8% of the MBT number in 1992(more than 4,000) and 14% of the MBT number in 2004(2,400) . The Germans had more than 3,000 howitzers in 1992, about 1,000 in 2004 and only 120 in 2021. The same is true for other weapons systems. Even NATO’s prized fighters are down by more than 50% .
Since the outbreak of the Russian-ukrainian conflict, the number of German equipment has only increased slightly. At the current pace of procurement, the survey suggests, it may be decades before the number of major German equipment returns to 2004 levels: 10 years for fighter jets, 40 years for battle tanks and 100 years for howitzers. It would take only two to seven months for the Russians to produce the equipment that the Bundeswehr will have in 2021.
German arms orders were reported to have increased significantly only in July, when the 2023 began. But the proportion of orders without a clear delivery date also increased. This means that delivery delays and insufficient capacity are becoming more and more serious.
And orders are still small. The number of howitzers ordered by the Germans, for example, was not enough to cover the shortfall in aid to Ukraine. The 105 Panther-2 battle tanks ordered by Germany in July are not expected to be fully delivered until 2030.