Pistorius remodels
Report: Troops should get more off-the-shelf goods
4/21/2023, 12:28 p.m
If Bundeswehr troops request new equipment, they usually have to wait a long time. The reason is a big bureaucratic jumble. Defense Minister Pistorius wants to change that in the future. And for this he has planned some radical steps.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius declares war on the Bundeswehr’s dysfunctional procurement system. Over the past few weeks, he has had his armaments secretary, Benedikt Zimmer, and the new inspector general, Carsten Breuer, draw up orders to enable German troops to obtain new equipment more quickly. The “Spiegel”, which claims to have the first drafts, published a detailed report on it.
Accordingly, Zimmer and Breuer write that the purchase of new material must be “significantly faster, more effective and less bureaucratic”. In addition, it is to be “determinative with immediate effect as the essential factor in all current and new armaments projects” in order to “make the products to be procured usable for the troops as quickly as possible”.
To this end, the sometimes inscrutable, sometimes excruciatingly long procurement processes are to be radically streamlined. In order to make this possible, the “Spiegel” continues to quote, “the regulations that tighten legal regulations” are suspended. The Bundeswehr practically slowed itself down. A less tight set of rules should speed up the ordering process.
Also personnel restructuring
Weapons procurement is also to be reformed. According to “Spiegel”, Zimmer writes that “market availability” is preferable. This is based on the fact that the Bundeswehr often had special, but then time-consuming, requirements for weapon systems. In the future, “off the peg” should be bought more often.
The Federal Defense Minister has already announced that he wants to fill the gaps in the Bundeswehr quickly. Previously, he had massively restructured the top of his house. For example, he replaced the head of the procurement office in Koblenz.
The aim of all reforms is to be able to get the Bundeswehr ready for action as quickly as possible. The new inspector general of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, writes in another decree quoted by the magazine that he plans to involve the inspectors of the armed forces “more closely in their responsibility for the realization of armaments projects over the entire course of the project in procurement”.