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Analysis/ Germany is rearming, but does it have enough soldiers and reserves for a war scenario?
2025-04-07 12:24:30 / BOTA
Recently, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius of the Social Democrats, the most popular German politician who many say will remain in office and with Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz as chancellor, inspected the air base at Büchel in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The latest F-35 aircraft, which Germany purchased from the American Lockheed Martin, are expected to be deployed from 2027, with the aim of strengthening the NATO alliance's deterrent capabilities.
“ We need to make the base here suitable for the F-35, it needs to be upgraded to NATO standards,” said Boris Pistorius, continuing: “Russian aggression in Ukraine and Russia’s permanent nuclear threat show how important it is that, along with conventional means of deterrence, we also have a reliable nuclear deterrent. ”
Defense, for us, is not just theoretical scenarios on paper. In recent years, looking at the circumstances, "Germany must prepare for war," because the Russian threat is real, both conventionally and largely unconventionally in Germany.
As he characteristically said from Büchel: “Every day we read more and more about what will happen if… I am actually worried about what we have to do. We have to regroup, to fulfill our duties as a European partner of NATO. I believe that our role as Germany is another one, that of a stronger Germany.
On the other hand, the lack of reserves
However, at the same time, and while the debate and investment for the radical improvement of the German armed forces have been going on for two years, chronic gaps and structural problems are not easy to hide. A few days ago, the statements of the chairman of the German Reserve Association, Patrick Schönsburg, on the T-Online website, according to which, to make Germany ready for war, one million reservists are needed, caused a stir.
According to calculations, Germany needs about 350,000 troops to protect its territorial integrity. This means that the number of reserves would have to triple. In a hypothetical war scenario on NATO's eastern flank, Sensburg estimates that up to 5,000 soldiers could die every day.
For him, the main problem of the German armed forces is not so much the infrastructure and technical means of prevention, but the lack of personnel. He sees the only solution as the return of compulsory military service, and not a voluntary model, along the lines of Sweden, proposed by Boris Pistorius. (DW)
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