100 billion euros for Germany's armed forces: Why hardly anything has arrived so far | DW News 

Great host, great questions, but the wrong person in the hot seat. That needs political feet held to the fire.

@@davidr3382 i think the no#1 task needs to be to plant a base of common information - once we are sure there is a baseline of knowledge to have a constructive and honest discussion on - THEN we can bring out the pitchforks, else all we get is political theatrics where people dodge or dilute the questions we actually need answers for and not just someone to blame. This was an excellent interview in that regard.

bph is very hectic, look how good he is turn to be when it shrank

The military-industrial complex is very happy with this DW promotion.

@@davidr3382 It would be more satisfactory to see someone grilled who's actually responsible for the delays but I don't think the interview would be more informative. This guest was much more willing to talk about the problems and reasons. I wouldn't expect someone from the offices in question to be so forthcoming. edit: also as an ex-officer myself, that man is on point. The BW might look bad from the outside but it really is even worse in reality. Quite frankly, Germany didn't want to have a functional military for the last 20-30 years - partly because it didn't fit the Zeitgeist and partly because it's expensive and was deemed unnecessary.

how about audit on Ukrainian and German officers involved? if aid cant help, suggest direct send troops to help.

Kudos to the Oberst for being there and giving forthcoming answers.

Such a calming voice

Palki is still better.

@Delta phase Plutonium "He still sticks to the narrative" aka he doesn't partake in your conspiratorial delusions.

The guy being interviewed was a MP in the past

There's no shortage of good media... You're always free to read or watch quality information.

@@epgui Hard disagree. The english speaking media is a parody of itself.

Watch MSNBC & CNN for honest, penetrating interviews.

Did you seriously say CNN that says as much bullshite as Fox News

and he's super articulate and polite oozes class

Agree.

Got to hand it to this German Officer aswell, he's so honest about all the problems, this interview is brilliant, shows the reality of the current problems and also the reasons. No lies , just the truthful reality

I’ve never seen him this animated before on this channel. I like it.

That reporter impressed me here. Good Job.

He initially tried to say there were no problems and only when pressed admitted to some. Saying there are no problems after the minister of defense resigned i like making fun the audiences intelligence. Also he tried to downplay their failings by saying this is also happening in UK or France, etc. I think he had a defensive and deeply biased attitude.

The host was great and really pressed this guest for real answers. Too few ask the hard questions these days!

@@alitiner9967 He did not. He's just not an English native speaker and struggles with the language. As someone who's fluent in both German and English I could tell. The expressions and phrases he used would all suggest that there's a lot of work to be done in order to fix the German military when I translate them into German. He stuck to the same message from beginning to end. They just had to clear up communication.

He was allowed to be honest.

@@schtreg9140 I would sign that, würde ich so unterschreiben.

@Phillip Banes we Americans are used to our leaders lying, omitting, manipulating, twisting and spin-doctoring facts and talking in a way that doesn't honestly answers the hard questions the people deserve answers to

@@worldwanderer91 according to your channel, you're not an American lol

@Phillip Banes Because everything is a political tight rope in America. An American officer in this situation would have a script on what they can and cannot say, they would be very formal and direct with answers and non-answers. Not lies or misrepresentations just avoidances to questions that would raise concerns among the populace who are prone to emotional outrage ways of thinking. Trying their best to not say something that could be taken out of context and turned into a hit piece by the American fearmongering media outlets trying to sell hyperbole news. So it is weird to us to hear someone of a higher ranking officer speak so candidly and open out German's military position and admitting a weakness like their lack of recruitment drives, their low troop numbers would just be utterly unheard of in American politics.

He is not a General. He is a Oberst (Nato Code OF-5) which would be a Colonel in the US Army.

@@Luflandebrigade31 still a high ranking officer

Thanks for your great advice, Captain Hindsight !!!

It was designed to be dysfunctional. That way an automatic excuse is generated for not proceeding.

The Money is not the Problem the Structure of the Defense Ministery and the Parties there are the Worst Scenery ! The Central Administration and the procurement Office in Koblenz working more than 6000 People! The Left Hand cant understand what the right Hand do! Preussen in the 17 Century was more effektiv as this Bürocratic Monster!

All Germany is like this. Want to produce faster? You cannot measure employees. Want to do anything? Red tape everywhere...everywhere.

Defence industry has a lot to say in conservative parties. They protected a steady income for this industry. Find out who worked out the contracts in the past!

eläköön suomi

Yes, thank you Finlanders for this! Imagine, Germany with its huge GDP compared to Finland, can't even protect itself.

Well you finnish have nothing else to do in military.. you don't fight anyone 😂 I picture finnish military people topless washing tanks and aircraft. 😂

@@drcornelius8275 that’s what they get for prioritizing the concerns of vocal minority interest groups over the interests of society as a whole.

Of course, it's not like that FR Germany sits next to Russia

Don't forget France....

Europe is getting de-industrialized and needs to divert money to defense? Hope you like austerity measures like the French.

i agree, but it is a little sad that it is necessary. The money would be better spent on something constructive. I really hate putin for causing all this BS.

I don't think the countries need to spend more, per se. They just need to spend *smarter*. The French for example are paying much less for a military that however seems a lot more capable. A problem with Germany has been that, for decades, the defense budget wasn't even exhausted because procurement is such a mess. Meaning, even when the money was made available, the military was unable to spend it all because of red tape. This is what needs to change.

@@thegreatdane3627 Biden caused this bs. Encroaching towards Russian border and planning to set up missile launchers is bound to create a defensive reaction. If the Chinese and Russians did the same on the US/Mexican border how would US react. They sure have form for invading countries. Hey let's brush that under the carpet. Only invaded countries that were not white. All US led wars are racist war and you part of it. The world has had enough. Keep spending and wasting money on arms instead of your own people. Has European people become that gullible that they keep falling for the US lies. Putin has no intention of invading you guys. Americans has made you really paranoid. All they want is neutral buffer zone. You guys pushed him too far but too stubborn to see that. Biden has an unhealthy xenophobic obsession against Russia. Just like Bush jr did with Sadam and Iraq. Its all about their family business and these countries not entertaining them.

i szellüde thöse reinkärrn8ink river nuking ale innz vv they knöw space better than we our nrj opschönce xP.

He's British. They grow up talking like this.

I've seen this in large corporations too. Employees who feel the work they have to do has outgrown their abilities hide behind the security of processes and most of all deferring to the supposed competency of other employees. Issues are being bogged down in endless loops of meetings where people just discuss who else still needs to get involved in the matter.

But you are in America and is able watch this freely so America is still allowing you to learn what you want to learn. Stop talking down about your country. You can learn whatever you want it doesn't always have to come from America we have that freedom not everyone in the world can say or do that

@@dark12ain What you are writing now has nothing to do what the discussion is about and what he commented on.

@@user-cw3nb8rc9e yes it was mind your business

Why would an American channel care to inform us about the German forces? I don’t see German military bases here

So what you want to continue killing each other for the elites game of wars? Let's send the elites to kill each other

easy to say for a dane to put nuclear land mines on german soil. even in the cold war this was outragous in my opinion.

It not just that Tom remember Germany was trying to solve the problem of affordable "Green Energy". Remember Germany doesn't have coal, oil, or natural gas. So it has looked hard at alternatives. So they have been trying to develop "Green Hydrogen".

@@psycho4207 Germany has nuclear bombs, so does Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey under the nuclear sharing agreement. They are already in play.

​@@4700_Dk None of these countries have their own nuclear bombs. "Nuclear sharing is a concept in NATO's policy of nuclear deterrence, which allows member countries without nuclear weapons of their own to participate in the planning for the use of nuclear weapons by NATO. In particular, it provides for the armed forces of those countries to be involved in delivering nuclear weapons in the event of their use."

The last time we stocked up... we were close to Moscow and Europe was ours so we are careful...

The last time Germany's NATO contributions was above 2% of GDP was in 1992 (at 2.2%)

@@slimjimnyc270 do you remember when all of europe and almost all of russia was german? And now the supposedly second strongest army in the world cannot even contain ONE small country💀

@@El_Mayo Which wouldn't had been possible without 8 years of western training and military buildup with western equipment which were mostly US and UK. If the US continued down its path of isolationalism again and retreated from the world, Europe would be speaking Russian. Remember when alot part of Europe spoke Latin? Or French? Yeah, that's no longer relevant either.

@@eminencerain848 Can you remember when Germany was down and a few years later we were ahead of Moscow and Europe was ours💀

@usama masud. When the software control equipment which were designed to KILLS PEOPLE, they better double and triple check. Do you want to be responsible for a software bug which kills people? Real world example: the Boeing 737 Max crashes, which were caused by software issues (not enough testing), were grounded for 1.5 yrs and had to pay $2.5 Billion in damages.

​@Unintentional Failure thats mostly not the case anymore

"a small bug which can be fixed in 10 minutes, but it takes additional 3 months." - that's intentional, it's due to corruption. The time spent in testing means that more money is spent. That money goes into someone's pocket. I also have experience in this area, working for corporations. It goes from software to replacing a screw, or a lightbulb in the bathroom. You can tighten your own screw, and anyone can replace a lightbulb, but the CEO has hired his buddy's company that does that, at 100x the price. Same with software testing.

That has nothing to do with procurement.

Like when German car manufacturers manipulated chips to make their cars look better? lol. German quality is not bad, but by far not the best.

I hope you're talking about the few rulers and not about us the people

Germanys policy with Russia since the 70s was to solve problems via diplomacy and a win-win market situation. This worked really well for a time and might be one of the biggest reasons, Russia allowed Germanys Reunification. Sadly, Germany didn't see, that this policy crumbled in 2014

@@styrkjarsteibjorn1860 Just like the Americans with the Middle East

The US has been fkd for decades by their "allies"

​@@El_Mayo obviously, the average person isn't exactly making all the decisions outside of voting for leaders.

Even the US? We spend 800B year with no money Ieft for the homeless, massive student debts and no universal Healthcare. We have more useless guns then people here. Do you watch the news where we are shooting everyone everyday especially small kids in schools? If any nation needs to spend less and demilitarize, it's the US of A. 😢😮🇺🇲

Yeah man, Putin woke a sleeping giant..

@@MexxProtect LOL, this is the same sleeping giant that tried to forcibly vaccinate their population, and sent riot cops at protesters? The same big sleepy giant that constantly spreads hatred towards the white population? Yeah, lots of us remember this. My enemies are not in Moscow or Beijing, they are here at home. 😉

​@@MexxProtect Yeah, a morbidly obese, severely uneducated giant. There is nothing Americans hate more than each other. They are too busy prepping for their own civil war to worry about a world war at the same time.

Too long just “making Love”. 😢

DW is a pretty good German news media. i agree

My opinion, American news are more about views/klicks, sensationalism, profits and entertainment than straight information. Maybe there are exceptions…

Just understand that Germany was focused on green technologies, but the couldn't afford to do both. Now with the war the focus again on their military.

@@marctemura2017 We can do booth. A goverment has many heads which can do several things at the same time. Green Technologies were even pushed trough the russian aggression, since it forced us to get much faster energy independent than before. The military is being pushed by big grants. And in the infrastruture sector also big undertakings have started, like the "Deutschland-Ticket". And there will be also quite some big transformation with the Deutsche Bahn and the InfraGo. It feels a bit, like germany is slowly awakening again and moving.

How much time is the problem.Germany needs a go fund me page to start building their military.The U.S. would be more than happy to get them started with tents,clothing,rain gear,and up to date radios.

😂😂😂

It was Guttenberg who really gutted the Bundeswehr though.

Hard to fight a war if you have equipment but not enough people to use it

Hugo Boss never designed any uniform of the German military

It's a playing with words. In WW2 times there was the meme "Surrounded by enemies". So "Von Feinden umzingelt" transformed to "Von Freunden umzingelt".

probably because when each euro country tried defending for itself they would get into massive wars with each other.

Trump warned the germany and friends years ago how they were too dependent. They did not listen and jumped into economic turmoil by having both lacking military and funds.

Couldn't agree more, they have been free loading for far too long. Need to pull the finger out.

well, Germany IS surrounded by friends

Yes, they are still occupied by the U.S military till this day actually. These days the Germans are pretty neutered and take the role as peacekeeper but yes for many years people were nervous about allowing Germans to have their own military.

@@frenchonion4595 , When Germany rejoined and East Germany fell, Margaret Thatcher was so upset about a stronger Germany that she refused (alone in Europe) to take part in the celebration.

You have it wrong, Joe. During the Cold War, West Germany Army was quite strong. By the 1970s-1980s, West Germany had 14 full-sized divisions. The US, UK and France were happy that West Germany had such an excellent defensive force, which was fully under NATO command. Fast-forward to today, and Germany can barely field about 2-3 brigades. A sad turn of events.

Delay is losing.

Not sure but in 2020-21 the covid numbers were usually 2 days delayed because huge parts were telefaxed and had to be re-digitallised and manually counted. It's very likely not only limited on the health sector.

but DO YOU ? :P i guess we are about to discover that

@@kukulroukul4698 The data supports my statement.

@@wilhelm4321 if ill cut you the emigration your data might SCREAM at you back !

​@@kukulroukul4698 Huh? That surely made sense in your head.

The planning should have been decades ago. Somebody must have had a wish list.

To be fair, France has very similar problems in the Army, because their Money goes to the Navy and QRF Forces

@Wilhelm Eley During the Cold War there was a different procurement system

Dont bet on us ^^

I've worked a lot with the German military. On the individual level their soldiers are excellent and well trained. However, their military organization as a whole is a disaster.

You don't promote peace by de-militarization. " If you want peace, prepare for war." - This was true 2000 years ago, is true now and will be true 2000 years in the future. But if there is something we can learn form history, is that people never learn form history.

The german bureaucracy is not the big part which makes everything slow. The biggest part is Hollywood War movies for decades have crippled german patroism to the ground. I live since 1992 in Germany and absolutly no german has any slight of patroism. If you go to school in germany, you get hammerd from class 7 till class 13 with german past history. Absolutly no other country talks so much about the countrys past mistake. Most over countries talk down or even deny their mistakes.

@@pepsicherry6389 these two issues are linked. Because what everyone wants -or at least wanted- is Germany being a pushover. Europe wanted Germany demilitirised, America wanted Germany demilitirised. And they wanted this to go on forever. This is the result.

The one time everyone in Europe and North America actually wants Germany to manufacture weapons, they eff around. Well, dear Germans, if you don't start manufacturing weapons asap, someone else will do it. It is not the outcome Germans should want, trust me 😄

I am Geman and I know what the problem is. NOT history !!! Dang. I am so upset by all the bureaucracy and mafia business !

Honestly I completely understand Germany's speed issue, even the USA is facing shortages because their manufacturing base has shrunk radically and they can't sustain the ammunition needed in an active war. Every Western country is undergoing changes now so the German colonel is completely right. I think people were mainly angry with Germany because they stopped leopards from other countries from going to Ukraine, which seemed over the line

@@radscorpion8 You need to educate yourself of the facts. Germany's incompetence is decades of idiocy.

@@radscorpion8 That's not true. Germany did not stop anyone's Leopard 2 deliveries. Poland said so, without even requesting the export allowance. I think the export was green lit the same day Poland finally decided to officially request it. How come Germany is now the first to deliver the Leopard 2 tanks? The US Abrams tanks aren't expected before next year, even though they have multiple thousands in active duty.

@Phillip Banes It had nothing to do with bureaucracy - it was a long, heated political discussion among the coalition partners because of our history. Gladly research quotes from the debates of those who were against ist - historical references.

It hardly depends on where you are from 😅

No my Greek friend you only looking at one part of the puzzle. What the Germans have been working on is "affordable Green Energy" that real goal. It is an alternative to nuclear energy. Water has hydrogen, if you can break it part it is an awesome fuel source for massive electricity generation.

​@@marctemura2017Hydrogen power is extremely expensive,and difficult to store.That's why hydrogen powered cars are already useless.

for real, even back when I was a kid they used to talk about Europeans being the cheapest people when it came to defense spending, now they are trying to spin it to not seem incompetent.

They're doing a whole lot of nothing too.

also lets be real Russia is not going to invade anyone anytime soon. Their country is going to be permanently broken and scarred after this. Hopefully they will never be a major power ever again

​@@samsonsoturian6013 Poland is upping its spend to 5% of the GDP and plans on tripling its currently 110,000 strong army. So no, the Poles are doing A WHOLE LOT.

@@BingoPaletot Hmm. How many Russians/Belorussians have they killed?

For fielded equipment, 9 months is not great, but not that bad for a moderately complex peice of hardware. It will be interesting to see when then ACTUAL vehicle will roll off the production line.

@@slimjimnyc270 I should have said "ordered" not "replace". That it takes nine months to just place an order is impossibly slow. Once the order is placed, the howitzers will have to then by manufactured, which likely is measured in years.

@@JDSFLA It's just my professional opinion that 9 months to place a contract is still within the norm for a fielded weapon like the PzH2000. You have to review the blueprints and update all the specs on the drawings (since the last procurement) before you can send it out to the bidders [2-4 wks]. Usually, the various bidders have lots of questions, and that takes time to answer them [1-2 wks]. Then they need time to prepare their proposals [4-8 wks; one contract I worked on had 10 volumes]. When they send in the proposals, you have to evaluate each proposals and find the best value, etc [1-2 wks]. Then you have protests from the people who lost [1-3 mths]. All this adds time to the Procurement process. Not to mention UNAVOIDABLE funding hiccups [1-3 mths]. I'm retired engineer who spent 25 yrs doing this for the U.S. military. Best regards.

Some European countries, yes, but others, no. Figures for defense spending are easily available.

@@slimjimnyc270 This is not a case of sourcing equipment from a multitude of possible manufacturers. There is only one manufacturer of the PzH2000 (KMW), so your long list of procurement steps is obfuscation. The real reasons for such a lag in placing an order is lack of political will, and bureaucratic red tape.

This is why we have nato xd

Many things changed after the reunification of Germany - Not only the US left, what was BAOR (British Army Of the Rhine) was reduced also. I did a few tours with BAOR units during my years of service. At that time the Bundeswehr was very big, but it is understandable that things change as needs also change. Politicians are the ones that make the decisions to reduce the size of the Armed Forces. So it is in a way unfair to have a Germany Military Colonel to try and justify the changes of old. Politicians are the ones that should be in line for this kind of grilling.

@@davidr3382 We Germans can take Europe and Russia back very quickly...

And germany pays for every single one. A good chunk of the american army is paid by germany!

​@@El_Mayo NATO has no soldiers. Not a single one. The Nato members have soldiers. And since all of those members have downscaled their militaries nobody would come to save us if we are attacked 🙄 US ? To far away, takes weeks and month until they are here with enough military force. If the republicans don't leave NATO altogether, then no reinforcement will come. Poland ? Busy with being surrounded by Russia on two sides (three if Russia wins in Ukraine) they don't build anti-tank Hedgehogs and minefields at the border with Belarus and Kaliningrad because mines are cheap at the moment. France? Will probably no help because their nukes will keep Russia out of France. Macron won't risk a nuclear war for Germany. And his population would think the same way. If Germany doesn't want to defend itself, why should France do their job ?? The UK ? Also too far away. They would need to cross the English channel to reach mainland Europe. The Russian northern fleet would immediately close the whole north sea including the channel and shot down most airplanes trying to deliver weapons. Finland ? also busy with having Russia as neighbor. So if all members are too weak today to help, too far away to help in time, don't want to help or are busy with Russia itself who should come to defend Germany ?? Answer nobody. Since our military is now smaller then even the military of neutral Switzerland 🇨🇭. They have 20,000 less soldiers but more tanks, artillery and ammunition. Don't you think it is an unusual sign that that the military of a country that known for being neutral in every conflict has basically the same size as the military of their neighbor who has 10x more people ???

UK, USA, and Greece consistently at 2% or higher - the lowest year for Greece was 2014 at 2.4%. Turkey has been mostly reliable - since 2011 it failed to meet 2% in 3 years. Since 2011 France has spent 2% of GDP or higher just one year. In the same period Poland met 2% or higher in 7 years. Since 1973, Canada has spent 2% or more only in 7 years, from '82 to '88. Canada was collecting the peace dividend whilst the Cold War was still ongoing. More than four decades of sponging. Spain last spent 2% in 1994 - nearly three decades of sponging. Netherlands last saw 2% in 1993. Three decades of sponging. It was 1991 when Belgium last saw defence spending at 2% or higher. More than three decades of sponging. 1992 for Denmark. 1989 for Italy. Luxembourg has been under 1% since 1985. The biggest sponger of them all. Keep in mind, 2% was based on post-Cold War 'peacetime' assessment. Everyone except Canada was well above 2% during the Cold War. That period is over. Two per cent is no longer sufficient because the realities have changed. No one has the luxury to declare I'll be ready in 5 to 10 years.

@@gagamba9198 The irony is that greeces military spending is motivated by another nato member ... turkey.

US, UK, France, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, (Newcomer) Finland, Greece, Türkiye, Romania, Bulgaria, Norway, Slovakia All of them reach the 2% target. But not even Canada wants to pay 2%. Even they refuse. But i absolutely agree that it can't continue like that anymore.

last time we upgraded, a little later Europe was ours...

@@El_Mayo that was over 80 years ago dont live in the past

@@joeiborowski9763 Ah, so historical consciousness is living in the past? That's why you don't work up the theft of an entire country, murder of Indians and the enslavement of people?🤡 (And the other stuff you uys did)

US base in Germany at least. However, they need to get past Poland first. Those Poles are tough fighters and they are building up a nice strong military now.

@@remogatron1010 True.

You are really dump

every German: 'no way that i'm risking my life , not with these energy prices , high taxes and high rent prices, I'm off to Tenerife, let me know when the war is over'😄

We had no army in 1936. In 1939, we shook the world to the core (not proud, but it's a fact). Then again, we had no army in 1955. Five years later, we had one of the strongest armies in NATO. In 1989, West Germany alone had 500,000 soldiers and 2,250 MBT (!!).

First you need the gear, before you can get a soldier.

Since the BAAINBw was founded, the German military became inoperative. Bureaucracy is there to hide corruption.

Did you listen to the video? He said the defense minister took 9 months to just sign a contract.

@@zurabavaliani8101 I did. In fact that s the point i tried to make, it may have taken 9 months on that occasion, but training ukrainians and sending the leopards took only a couple of months. That was my point, it s not the procurement process that s the problem, it s political will. Bureauceacy is the politician's excuse for their own obfuscation. Who do you think made the procurement process to be this way? God? 🤣

@@xenofonkarykis8417 "Usually the procurement of other international contracts take much much longer."

@@zurabavaliani8101 yes, exactly. So how come this is like 4x faster? Political will. What is it you do not understand friend?

Denmark has 17,000 soldiers. Germany has 188,000.

Last.time we took denmark in 8 hours. I dont think they would last much longer today!