Marten indispensable?
Expert Sauer considers arguments to be advanced
4/10/2022 3:03 am
Ukraine is asking Germany for heavy military equipment – but the Ministry of Defense hesitates and refers to NATO obligations and the Bundeswehr’s operational capability. Security researcher Frank Sauer finds excuses. The federal government is avoiding long-term strategies.
The security expert Frank Sauer from the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich has expressed doubts about a statement by Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on arms deliveries to Ukraine. This had declared that the federal government could hardly provide Kyiv with any more war equipment because otherwise Germany’s ability to defend itself would be endangered. In addition, NATO alliance defenses could otherwise not be met. “If the German national defense really threatens to fail because of a few martens,” Sauer said in an interview with the “Spiegel”, “then we can close the shop completely. And we didn’t meet various NATO requirements for years. That was there no problem either.”
“I’m far from calling for blind activism,” Sauer continued. An armored personnel carrier that breaks down after a day and for which there are no spare parts is of no use to Ukraine. Specialists also cited the time-consuming training for the weapon system. “But the official justification does not use these arguments at all.” Technical and logistical problems should be taken seriously and must be checked on a case-by-case basis, says Sauer. “But technical and logistical challenges can be mastered. Other countries do it. We don’t even try.”
A cipher for the undecided
For him, the discussion about the marten “stands as a cipher for the fact that we do not want to make political decisions and want to adapt to the new security situation in Europe in the long term,” Sauer complained. “However, the war will most likely continue and even become more intense. We have to plan for this and act proactively with foresight, no longer just react ad hoc,” said the political scientist. Now is the time to help Ukraine “inflict as much damage as possible on the Russian armed forces,” Sauer said. That’s hard. “But European security in the coming decades will be significantly influenced by the outcome of this war,” said Sauer.
Ukraine had asked Germany to supply up to 100 used Marder tanks. However, these would have to be taken from the current inventory of the Bundeswehr. The gap could be filled with decommissioned tanks that are currently at the Rheinmetall armaments group. However, the general overhaul would last until next year. According to a report by “Welt”, Rheinmetall had already offered the federal government the ring exchange on February 28. So far, Ukraine has only received weapons from Germany from Bundeswehr stocks.