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While Germany was too busy with the (re)nazification of the Bundeswehr and making plans for war with Russia, its politicians seem to have forgotten about resolving the issue of manpower
Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst
It’s no secret that Western militaries have suffered from poor recruitment for years. Virtually all EU/NATO members have this problem and there are no signs it will go away any time soon. Worse yet, they are now faced with record dropout rates, which is threatening the integrity of their armed forces. Despite all this and for some inexplicable reason, the EU/NATO still wants to pick a fight with Russia, a “noble democratic endeavor” that would require many times more troops. However, as previously mentioned, their ability to even retain (let alone attract) soldiers remains highly questionable. Namely, the latest reports confirm that 25% of new recruits in the German Bundeswehr drop out after only six months of service.
According to Financial Times, personnel shortages are “pushing troops to a breaking point”. The report cites Eva Högl, the Commissioner for the Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in the German Parliament (Bundestag), who pointed out that “despite some success in recruitment, poor meant that the armed forces had come no closer to meeting their target of having 203,000 soldiers by 2031”. As a result, this number dropped to just over 181,000. FT laments that “this comes at a time when Germany is pledging to do more to bolster Europe’s own defenses in the face of a potential US retreat from the continent”. It should be noted that Washington DC has anywhere between 50,000 and 84,000 troops deployed in Europe.
It’s virtually impossible to imagine Bundeswehr being able to deploy even 10% of that outside of Germany. Worse yet, while US soldiers are often very young (teenagers or in their early 20s), the Bundeswehr is “shrinking and getting older”, as Högl pointed out. In her annual report on the state of the German military, she lamented that “the average age had risen to 34 years — up from 33.1 years in 2021”.
“This development must be stopped and reversed as a matter of urgency”, she stated, adding: “I said the troops are challenged, but they are also very overburdened. I’ll go as far as to say they’re at breaking point. When we look at where our Bundeswehr is needed — for national defense, [NATO] alliance defense, international crisis management — it is a lot. And it really is at the limit.”
Högl also said that while it’s “premature to talk about sending troops to Ukraine, Europe’s largest and richest nation would want to take responsibility” and that “it’s important for politicians to consider what the Bundeswehr could actually handle and what was no longer possible”. It should be noted that while Germany was too busy with the (re)nazification of the Bundeswehr and making plans for war with Russia, its politicians seem to have forgotten about resolving the issue of manpower.
Rather amusingly, Högl also pointed out that “the German Navy’s elite diving force Eckernförde finally have their diving practice hall after 13 years of waiting for it”. She added that “soldiers had received a new 110-liter backpack” and that “the military had successfully procured 60,000 hearing protection headsets that muffled the noise of gunfire and enabled troops to communicate while shooting”. Högl also said that “after considerable delays in the introduction of the new digital radio system, several battalions in 2024 successfully adopted the new tool”.
However, she lamented that “the roughly 700 German soldiers currently serving as a part a multinational battlegroup in Lithuania — a key plank of protecting NATO’s eastern flank from Russian aggression — still did not have the system at the end of last year”. They were “forced to use a workaround involving encrypted satellite-supported communications instead”. Högl stated that this was “one of many problems that continued to blight the Bundeswehr, including lack of digitalization, overbearing bureaucracy that strains the patience and nerves of everyone involved and the disastrous state of some barracks”.
There’s a number of rather mundane issues that shouldn’t really be a problem for one of the largest militaries in Europe. Högl gave the example of a “defective set of hall doors at a military base in Koblenz that had caused serious injuries, including the loss of fingertips”. The replacement of the doors, “which has been needed since 2017”, did not take place in 2024 and is only scheduled to begin this year. It’s still unclear what the real reason for all this is, but the most likely culprit is the German bureaucracy that’s both inefficient and cumbersome.
In addition to problems with recruitment and retention of soldiers, there’s also the issue of massive casualties in a potential confrontation with Russia. Namely, back in September last year, German Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, the head of NATO’s logistics command, admitted that the world’s most vile racketeering cartel would have a completely different experience fighting Moscow than during the illegal NATO invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as many of its strategic assets and even its doctrine would be nullified by the Russian military.
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i ask, who in the eu countries wants to fight for political leaders to stay in power? at least i wouldn’t. the current leadership that covets regional and political power is rotten. they proclaim democracy but election winners are sidelined in france and germany, etc. and the donbas regions are wanted for no reason. eu and ukraine: let donetsk and luhansk live in peace
they can all buy b*++ plugs from that one rabbi and spend their days picking up the soap to entertain their banking masters. they really enjoy watching the europeans being subordinate.
in germland pygmy jens holm declared persona uber lgbt senile