German ministers at odds over 'vital' defense sectors

German ministers debated on Wednesday which of the country's defense sectors should be deemed as vital to national interests.

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen had said earlier in the week that only sensor and cryptotechnology should be considered vital.

However, Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said this was a "very limited selection" and said that submarine manufacturing should also be included, as Germany was a leading exporter of submarines and ThyssenKrupp was an employer of thousands of people.

"The German government and parliament will have to discuss ... the very limited selection by the defense ministry of information technology... this will have significant consequences for national defense procurement and European cooperation," Gabriel, a member of the Social Democrat Party (SPD), told the parliament on Wednesday.

Defining the industry's key focus areas will determine where funding will be channeled.

Germany is the world's third largest arms exporter after the US and Russia, with firearms and the manufacturing of submarines and tanks considered to be the country's strength.

State of Bundeswehr's arsenal

The parliamentary debate came amid a heated national discussion over the state of the German army's own equipment. At the end of September, von der Leyen, who belongs to the Christian Democrat Party (CDU) admitted major shortfalls in the Bundeswehr's equipment.

She also said Germany would at present be unable to meet NATO requirements.

"With our airborne systems, we are currently below the target figures announced one year ago defining what we would want to be able to make available to NATO within 180 days, in the case of an emergency," Defense Minister von der Leyen told the "Bild am Sonntag" newspaper on September 27. "Delays for replacement parts for our planes and the missing helicopters are the reason for this."

The Bundeswehr was forced last month to admit that large parts of its equipment, including tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, were in such a state of disrepair that they could not currently be used. The bulk of the German air force is currently grounded, with 42 of its 109 Eurofighters and only 38 of 89 Tornado fighters ready for deployment. The list of grounded equipment goes on.

New report

On Monday October 6 a report was released. It had been commissioned by the German defense minister to address the nation's military hardware crisis. All nine of the Bundeswehr's major projects had been delayed by between two and a half and ten years, according to the report, with cost overruns rising into the billions.

In their report, the authors - a group of defense experts at the professional services group KPMG and the engineering group P3 - called for the defense ministry to develop a new leadership culture to head off further problems.

"The management of defense projects requires a management culture, which is based on transparency and integrity," said the report.

It identified 140 problems and risks facing the Bundeswehr's major projects.

Arms to combat zones

Wednesday's debate also came amid German ambitions to play a larger role internationally in situations where its military capacity might prove useful. At the end of September, German arms arrived in Iraq to arm Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the war against "Islamic State" militias. The weapons arrived late, however, after two military aircraft broke down. The move marked a departure from a post-World War II policy to not supply arms to war zones. It is panning out to be a major political challenge for von der Leyen, who has been in office as defense minister for a year, and who has not made secret her ambition to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor.

sb/rc (dpa, Reuters)