Even before the special fund for the Bundeswehr, the defense budget has been steadily increasing since 2014. But what is the Bundeswehr spending all the money on so far? A look at the military budgets of the past few years.
The new Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” said that the 100 billion euros in special funds for the Bundeswehr will not be enough – although around 50 billion euros are invested in the defense budget every year. Where does the money go in the Bundeswehr? A look at the military budgets of the past few years.
. While the federal government invested 32.4 billion euros in the Bundeswehr in 2014, the defense budget has been rising steadily since then and reached a total of 50.33 billion euros in 2022. The defense budget made the biggest jump from 2018 (38.5 billion euros) to 2019 (43.2 billion euros) – an increase of 12.2 percent. In 2022, expenditure for the Bundeswehr exceeded 50 billion euros per year. “With the increase, the path towards the political target of two percent of the gross domestic product decided at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014 is gradually continued”. “An important indicator of the ‘turnaround in finance’ are the increasing resources for armaments investments in order to clear the investment backlog of the past few years and to be able to maintain and further develop military capabilities.”
The Bundeswehr will spend almost 47 billion in 2021
Operating expenses are the largest item at around 25.8 billion euros (54.9 percent). This includes personnel expenses, expenses for material maintenance and other operating expenses – such as property management, fuel, business needs. At 13.2 billion euros, personnel costs are the largest item in operating expenses, followed by “other operating expenses” (8.02 billion euros) and materials conservation (4.53 billion euros). The second largest item in 2021 is investments: 10.3 billion euros will go into the armament of the Bundeswehr, of which almost 8.7 billion will go into procurement and around 1.7 billion into research and testing of weapon systems. The Bundeswehr will invest a good 1.4 billion euros in construction measures in 2021. A total of 46.93 billion euros will be available to the troops in 2021.
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Leopard 2, Challenger, Abrams and Co.: data, facts and functions of various weapon systems
This also includes an increase in spending – especially since it was decided after the outbreak of war in Ukraine – to 50.4 billion euros. According to the then (SPD) one “solid foundation”but “far too little money to work up the omissions”.
Special funds flow into new equipment
That’s what the Bundestag has for that “special assets” from which the Bundeswehr will receive 8.4 billion euros in 2023 in addition to the regular 50.1 billion euros in the defense budget. In the regular Bundeswehr budget for 2023, the amount provided for the purchase of ammunition was .
“The special fund for the Bundeswehr is a unique opportunity to close the large gaps in decades of savings. We will seize them to quickly and effectively modernize our armed forces and equip them for the future according to their mission”said Lambrecht . “In order to close the gaps of the past few years, investments are being made in the equipment of the Bundeswehr – especially in the areas of capability maintenance, development and digitization”writes that . “For military procurement, defense research, development and testing, around 9.6 billion euros will be available for the year 2023 in Section 14 (the defense budget, ed.). This means that investments can be made, for example, in the procurement of further A400M wide-bodied transport aircraft. The continued procurement of the Eurofighter or fleet service boats of class 424 is also secured.”
This task now falls to her successor Boris Pistorius, although Lambrecht already has: , , personal protective equipment for soldiers, and four are purchased from the special fund.
Defense budget will continue to increase
“Germany wants to increase its spending on security and defense to 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product by 2024. In the long term, the NATO target (annual defense spending of two percent of ) should be achieved”, is it[calledIn2022thatwouldhavebeen7734billioneurosSomorethanoneandahalftimesasmuchastheBundestagapprovedfor2022DependingonGermany’seconomicdevelopmenttheBundeswehrcanalsocountonsignificantlymoremoneyin2024
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Source: Stern
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