Assembly not taken into account?
New Bundeswehr radios end up in depots
September 24, 2023, 4:54 p.m
Digital radios are one of the items on which the Bundeswehr has already spent billions from the special fund. According to a report, there is now a problem with installation. One critic believes that this could take years and that the devices will “gather dust”.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is faced with major difficulties in an important project financed from the special fund for the Bundeswehr. As part of the armaments project “Digitization of Land-Based Operations” (D-LBO), the Bundeswehr wants to equip 34,000 vehicles, from tanks to off-road vehicles, with digital radio devices. The devices from manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz have been delivered since January 2023, but cannot be installed and must be stored in depots, as “Welt” reports.
“I see my concerns confirmed,” said SPD budget politician Andreas Schwarz to the newspaper. It was incomprehensible to him why the order had been triggered even though “the question of integration and multinational operational capability has still not been clarified.” Schwarz predicts: “That will take years. We are spending billions here on radios that will probably end up gathering dust on the shelf and probably won’t be used by the troops for a long time.”
Procurement volume of up to five billion euros
In the so-called special fund of 100 billion euros, a double-digit billion sum is planned for digital networking with several projects, including the 34,000 command radio devices. In December 2022, the Bundestag Budget Committee initially approved 1.3 billion euros for the management radio, plus the option for a further 1.5 billion euros. In the end, the management radio procurement project could have a volume of almost five billion euros.
“The effort required for sample and series integration into the vehicles is considerable and can only be carried out in cooperation with the defense industry,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told “Welt”. The votes were underway, but the speaker did not want to give a specific timetable.
In the departments of the Ministry of Defense and the subordinate Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Usage responsible for the project, apparently no one took care of the question of assembly in time, as “Welt” writes. It’s about adapter plates, battery capacities that are too low, alternators that are too small – and all of this for more than 100 different types of vehicles.
The direct award of the contract to Rohde & Schwarz is already controversial, the contract is being legally challenged by the French competitor Thales, and the proceedings are pending at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. The fact that the command radios were still delivered and paid for was due to the changes in procurement law implemented by Pistorius’ predecessor Christine Lambrecht, which were intended to prevent delays at the turn of the century.
But the Bundeswehr can hardly afford delays. According to “Welt,” time is of the essence on the radio project. The federal government has promised NATO that it will provide a fully equipped division with three brigades and 15,000 soldiers from 2025. To achieve this, around 10,000 vehicles would have to be available with initial digital qualification (“D-LBO basic”). Without this equipment, the division would not be able to lead with outdated communications technology, the article says.