Bundeswehr warehouse empty
Pistorius speeds up shopping for ammunition
06/19/2023 5:34 p.m
How empty the ammunition depots of the Bundeswehr are was previously classified. Defense Minister Pistorius is now presenting a shopping list to the Bundestag that grants a procurement gap of 190,000 rounds by 2031. The background is NATO requirements.
According to a report, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius wants to buy more ammunition for the Bundeswehr more quickly because of the aggravated security situation caused by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The ministry plans to present nine contracts for the accelerated purchase of artillery and tank ammunition to the budget committee of the Bundestag before the parliamentary summer break, the “Spiegel” reported.
Accordingly, on the one hand, more ammunition than previously planned is to be retrieved from existing framework agreements with industry. For example, the companies Rheinmetall and Diehl are to supply larger quantities of artillery ammunition for the German armed forces in the coming years. According to the report, new framework agreements are also planned. The advancement of the procurement was “due to the changed security situation” and served “the accelerated growth of the Bundeswehr’s own stocks,” the magazine quoted from confidential papers for the budget committee.
Supply clause with arms manufacturers
The papers are the first to show in detail how empty the Bundeswehr depots for artillery ammunition actually are. “The current stock of explosive projectiles in 155mm caliber is around 20,000 pieces,” it said. By 2031, however, the Bundeswehr would have to build up a stock of around 230,000 projectiles. Due to the lack of a good 190,000 shots, the accelerated purchase of 155 bullets is “absolutely necessary”, according to the report in the confidential documents. The numbers are based on the requirements of NATO. These stipulate that the Bundeswehr must have sufficient artillery ammunition available by 2031 to be able to survive intensive combat for 30 days.
According to “Spiegel”, the planned ammunition contracts also contain a so-called supply clause for the first time in the event of a crisis or war. In this way, the Bundeswehr wants to ensure its own supply of armaments if Germany’s “territorial security or alliance obligation” is at risk. In this case, the industry is obliged in the contracts to accelerate its own production as much as possible, the magazine reported. In this case, the factories would have to run for about 24 hours.