ianstone
08-19-2010, 05:31 PM
A Mission to Modernize Germany’s Armed Forces
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/08/19/world/19ihtletterspan/19ihtletterspan-articleLarge.jpg Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, right, reviewed a document with his adjutant Carsten Sawitzki on board a military flight in June.
BERLIN — On Friday, the German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is set to present to Chancellor Angela Merkel (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/angela_merkel/index.html?inline=nyt-per) his plans to modernize the Bundeswehr, the country’s armed forces. From all accounts, it could be one of the most radical and long overdue shake-ups undertaken in decades by a defense minister.
The Bundeswehr’s leadership structure, which has changed little since the Cold War, will be streamlined. The armed forces, which number 250,000, will be cut by well over 60,000. Many of the 406 barracks and military buildings will be closed. And if Mr. Guttenberg has his way, conscription will be replaced by voluntary service.
Defying his own conservative Christian Social Union party, which wants to maintain conscription, Mr. Guttenberg has spent the past 10 months questioning the value of calling up young men to do six months’ service. He has also said it is time to transform the Bundeswehr into a modern, professional and efficient army.
Two things have spurred Mr. Guttenberg. One is the war in Afghanistan, where Germany, the third largest contributor of troops after the United States and Britain, has more than 5,200 soldiers, based mainly in the north. The second is Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s decision to find savings of more than €80 billion, or $102 billion, between 2011 and 2014 to reduce the budget deficit. That will hit the Defense Ministry hard, and Mr. Guttenberg will have to find potential savings of as much as €8 billion over those four years.
“The Afghanistan mission and the need to make cuts have both motivated Guttenberg to reform the armed forces,” said Winfried Nachtwei, a security expert for the opposition Greens. “But what’s missing from the reform debate is the challenges and risks the Bundeswehr will face in the future.”
Leading discussions of those challenges are the soldiers who have returned from duty in Afghanistan and who write blog posts about their experiences. Some of them say they were not adequately prepared for such fierce combat, which they openly refer to as war, a word that until recently was taboo in Germany.
Mr. Guttenberg, a foreign policy expert who has visited Afghanistan several times since becoming defense minister last October, was the first German politician to call the conflict in Afghanistan a war. The public — two-thirds of whom want the troops brought home, — did not like the use of that term, according to opinion polls. On the other hand, Mr. Guttenberg received some praise for speaking the truth.
Some bloggers have complained about inadequate equipment. There are, for example, far too few helicopters and not enough robust armored personnel carriers, they say. Training has also fallen short, both physically and mentally, especially over the past 18 months, soldiers say. German troops have come under increasing attack from insurgents and have themselves caused civilian deaths and injuries. Instructions from Berlin are often too slow. Soldiers and security analysts also complain about heavy bureaucracy in organizing the missions.
Lt. Col. Detlef Buch, a military analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, says the Bundeswehr has cautiously tried to adapt to the end of the Cold War while being careful not to revive fears that Germany seeks to become a strong military power in the heart of Europe.
In the mid-1990s, Germany sent troops to the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, later supporting the NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) bombing of Serb forces in 1999 and stationing soldiers in Kosovo. But it is Germany’s participation in the NATO mission in Afghanistan that has tested the German Army’s limits.
Somehow, Colonel Buch said, “there is a lack of synchronization between the way the Bundeswehr is organized and the missions.” There is too much duplication among the land, naval and air forces, he explained. At the same time, the three forces have little ability to work together effectively. “Streamlining is necessary,” he said.
It is not as if this were all new to the Bundeswehr. Five years ago, it set a goal of having 14,000 soldiers, from a pool of 70,000 trained for stabilization and peacekeeping missions, who could serve at the same time in up to five operations. “This level of ambition could not be reached, either for personnel or equipment,” Mr. Guttenberg told the army’s top brass in April.
In a recent essay on the Bundeswehr, Völker Ruhe, a former conservative defense minister, and Ulrich Weisser, a retired vice admiral, blamed a bloated command structure for many of the armed forces’ woes. It is unnecessary, they argued, to have nine separate commands, three branches of the military service, a new armed forces base and six troop offices. “Instead, we need a two-column Bundeswehr with a unified command responsible for operations and a Bundeswehr command to provide the necessary capabilities on land, on the water and in the air,” they argued.
For that to happen, the Bundeswehr has to prioritize, says Svenja Sinjen, a security expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/council_on_foreign_relations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in Berlin. “The armed forces have to ask what they want to become. This is why the mission in Afghanistan has become so important to the debate.” It is the first time since 1945, Ms. Sinjen said, “that German soldiers die and kill in a mission.”
If Mr. Guttenberg succeeds in pushing through his changes, they will take several years to implement. The abolition of conscription could be the easiest. Besides saving billions of euros, it would be a catalyst for change. The Bundeswehr will have to offer its soldiers more money and more career prospects, opening the way to a more modern, flexible and educated army.
But Mr. Guttenberg has other big questions to answer. He has to explain to the public why Germany needs such a modern army. “Support by the public and parliamentarians for missions is at its lowest in a decade,” Mr. Nachtwei of the Greens said.
And if Germany does end up with an army that is more fit and more flexible, then it is likely that “expectations by NATO allies will increase” and Germany will be asked to contribute more to missions, Colonel Buch said. But the German public may have other ideas.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/08/19/world/19ihtletterspan/19ihtletterspan-articleLarge.jpg Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, right, reviewed a document with his adjutant Carsten Sawitzki on board a military flight in June.
BERLIN — On Friday, the German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is set to present to Chancellor Angela Merkel (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/angela_merkel/index.html?inline=nyt-per) his plans to modernize the Bundeswehr, the country’s armed forces. From all accounts, it could be one of the most radical and long overdue shake-ups undertaken in decades by a defense minister.
The Bundeswehr’s leadership structure, which has changed little since the Cold War, will be streamlined. The armed forces, which number 250,000, will be cut by well over 60,000. Many of the 406 barracks and military buildings will be closed. And if Mr. Guttenberg has his way, conscription will be replaced by voluntary service.
Defying his own conservative Christian Social Union party, which wants to maintain conscription, Mr. Guttenberg has spent the past 10 months questioning the value of calling up young men to do six months’ service. He has also said it is time to transform the Bundeswehr into a modern, professional and efficient army.
Two things have spurred Mr. Guttenberg. One is the war in Afghanistan, where Germany, the third largest contributor of troops after the United States and Britain, has more than 5,200 soldiers, based mainly in the north. The second is Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s decision to find savings of more than €80 billion, or $102 billion, between 2011 and 2014 to reduce the budget deficit. That will hit the Defense Ministry hard, and Mr. Guttenberg will have to find potential savings of as much as €8 billion over those four years.
“The Afghanistan mission and the need to make cuts have both motivated Guttenberg to reform the armed forces,” said Winfried Nachtwei, a security expert for the opposition Greens. “But what’s missing from the reform debate is the challenges and risks the Bundeswehr will face in the future.”
Leading discussions of those challenges are the soldiers who have returned from duty in Afghanistan and who write blog posts about their experiences. Some of them say they were not adequately prepared for such fierce combat, which they openly refer to as war, a word that until recently was taboo in Germany.
Mr. Guttenberg, a foreign policy expert who has visited Afghanistan several times since becoming defense minister last October, was the first German politician to call the conflict in Afghanistan a war. The public — two-thirds of whom want the troops brought home, — did not like the use of that term, according to opinion polls. On the other hand, Mr. Guttenberg received some praise for speaking the truth.
Some bloggers have complained about inadequate equipment. There are, for example, far too few helicopters and not enough robust armored personnel carriers, they say. Training has also fallen short, both physically and mentally, especially over the past 18 months, soldiers say. German troops have come under increasing attack from insurgents and have themselves caused civilian deaths and injuries. Instructions from Berlin are often too slow. Soldiers and security analysts also complain about heavy bureaucracy in organizing the missions.
Lt. Col. Detlef Buch, a military analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, says the Bundeswehr has cautiously tried to adapt to the end of the Cold War while being careful not to revive fears that Germany seeks to become a strong military power in the heart of Europe.
In the mid-1990s, Germany sent troops to the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, later supporting the NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) bombing of Serb forces in 1999 and stationing soldiers in Kosovo. But it is Germany’s participation in the NATO mission in Afghanistan that has tested the German Army’s limits.
Somehow, Colonel Buch said, “there is a lack of synchronization between the way the Bundeswehr is organized and the missions.” There is too much duplication among the land, naval and air forces, he explained. At the same time, the three forces have little ability to work together effectively. “Streamlining is necessary,” he said.
It is not as if this were all new to the Bundeswehr. Five years ago, it set a goal of having 14,000 soldiers, from a pool of 70,000 trained for stabilization and peacekeeping missions, who could serve at the same time in up to five operations. “This level of ambition could not be reached, either for personnel or equipment,” Mr. Guttenberg told the army’s top brass in April.
In a recent essay on the Bundeswehr, Völker Ruhe, a former conservative defense minister, and Ulrich Weisser, a retired vice admiral, blamed a bloated command structure for many of the armed forces’ woes. It is unnecessary, they argued, to have nine separate commands, three branches of the military service, a new armed forces base and six troop offices. “Instead, we need a two-column Bundeswehr with a unified command responsible for operations and a Bundeswehr command to provide the necessary capabilities on land, on the water and in the air,” they argued.
For that to happen, the Bundeswehr has to prioritize, says Svenja Sinjen, a security expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/council_on_foreign_relations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in Berlin. “The armed forces have to ask what they want to become. This is why the mission in Afghanistan has become so important to the debate.” It is the first time since 1945, Ms. Sinjen said, “that German soldiers die and kill in a mission.”
If Mr. Guttenberg succeeds in pushing through his changes, they will take several years to implement. The abolition of conscription could be the easiest. Besides saving billions of euros, it would be a catalyst for change. The Bundeswehr will have to offer its soldiers more money and more career prospects, opening the way to a more modern, flexible and educated army.
But Mr. Guttenberg has other big questions to answer. He has to explain to the public why Germany needs such a modern army. “Support by the public and parliamentarians for missions is at its lowest in a decade,” Mr. Nachtwei of the Greens said.
And if Germany does end up with an army that is more fit and more flexible, then it is likely that “expectations by NATO allies will increase” and Germany will be asked to contribute more to missions, Colonel Buch said. But the German public may have other ideas.