Germany, rearmament, and Ukraine - "Why 100 billion Euro may not fix the German military"

**see pinned comment for any corrections** When Russia launched its February 24th invasion of Ukraine, Germany was one of the nations that experienced a dramatic, near overnight political shift. Germany turned its eyes to rearmament after decades of reduced defence spending, while outside commenters criticised the limited number of heavy weapons the great Central European industrial power was able and willing to provide. The reality is that Germany's military is both one of the best funded in the world, and also one of the least prepared for action with much of its military reduced to scrounging from other units while equipment is out for maintenance. It is a military hampered by deep budgeting and procurement difficulties that have caused its readiness rates and equipment to run down to dire levels. German defence industry is among the world's best. It's capable of developing world beating products (especially when working with other European powers) but it operates at production levels, and in a procurement environment, that mean it has often been foreign militaries, not the Bundeswehr, that benefit most from German military-industrial potential. In this video, I go through some history of how the Bundeswehr came to be so run down. I go after the myth that the Bundeswehr has been poorly funded (there's both a yes and no answer there) and go through some of the reasons I think Germany's planned 100 billion Euro equipment spend could go horribly wrong if proper reforms and plans aren't put in place. To my German viewers, please take this as the friendly (if often critical) view of an ally across the sea. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PerunAU Sources or resources: Report on material readiness in the Bundeswehr 2021 https://www.bmvg.de/resource/blob/5325364/11a1d50cce70b7b1a8307adc16991f4d/download-bericht-zur-materiellen-einsatzbereitschaft-2-2021-data.pdf Commentary on 2018 figures: https://www.dw.com/en/limited-number-of-weapons-in-german-military-ready-for-action-report/a-42752070 https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/less-third-german-military-assets-operational-says-report/ The BAAINBw CPM guidelines (in English) (Only for the very dedicated) https://www.bundeswehr.de/resource/blob/1718386/d21a4f590da15adad3aecd560f3cc5cc/cpm-en-data.pdf More relevant procurement rules and regs (again, for the dedicated) https://www.bundeswehr.de/en/organization/equipment/contract-award/foundations-of-procurement 2018 reporting on shortage of tents and basic equipment https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-bundeswehr-lacks-basic-equipment-for-nato-mission/a-42638910 Germany losing a lawsuit with H&K over the G36 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-military-loses-legal-battle-with-heckler-koch/a-19522739 DGAP - "Proposals for a new German armaments policy" https://dgap.org/de/forschung/publikationen/vorschlaege-fuer-eine-neue-deutsche-ruestungspolitik German Parliament blocking armed drones: https://www.dw.com/en/no-armed-drones-for-the-german-army-for-now/a-55936615 German ambition to make the Bundeswehr the most effective army in Europe: https://www.rnd.de/politik/reaktion-auf-russischen-krieg-lindner-will-bundeswehr-zur-wirksamsten-armee-europas-machen-OR2OM2P5ILDKD7IZMKNQ77B44A.html BEWARE OF POTEMKIN: GERMANY’S DEFENSE RETHINK RISKS REINFORCING OLD HABITS https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/beware-of-potemkin-germanys-defense-rethink-risks-reinforcing-old-habits/ DW on the dangers of procurement issues in spending the 100 billion Euro https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-military-upgrade-hampered-by-bureaucracy/a-62046032 RUSI on procurement issues in the Bundeswehr (2019) https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/germany-calling-bundeswehr-acquisition-and-broken-narrative Timestamps: slightly better stamp, I've dropped them in the comments for now: 00:00:00 -- 00:00:54 -- What Am I covering? 00:02:20 -- Hey Germans 00:02:59 -- History 00:06:13 -- Cold War Germany - West 00:07:37 -- Cold War Germany - East 00:09:31 -- Armee der Einheit 00:12:09 -- The broken Bundeswehr 00:12:26 -- Germany and France comparison 00:16:45 -- Scrounging and minor ambitions 00:19:16 -- German Advantages 00:19:42 -- German Advantages: German Industry 00:21:55 -- German Advantages: The Sharp Edge 00:23:35 -- What's going on? 00:23:51 -- Where does the money go? 00:26:39 -- The capitalisation issue 00:29:42 -- Procurement 00:30:16 -- Procurement disasters 00:32:16 -- Focking it up 00:36:42 -- The aggregate picture 00:37:56 -- Financial horizons 00:39:16 -- Defence investment is long term 00:44:19 -- Capability 00:45:31 -- Compliance & litigation 00:49:01 -- Politics 00:51:50 -- 100 billion euro 00:52:21 -- Zeitwende 00:54:50 -- The Dangers 00:56:40 -- Stage 1: The gold rush 00:59:02 -- Stage 2: The cracks 01:00:32 -- Stage 3: Strangulation 01:02:51 -- Stage 4: gold plate & decay 01:04:52 -- How to make it work? 01:09:32 -- How to make it work? The social and political change 01:12:09 -- And what of Ukraine