Perhaps the Bundeswehr’s greatest problem is its inability to grow despite a concerted recruitment push meant to grow the force to 203,000 troops by 2031. Instead, the Bundeswehr is falling further behind, shrinking by 340 troops to 181,174 at the end of 2024. The force is also getting older to due a lack of young recruits, with the average age rising to 34.
“We must urgently stop and reverse this trend,” Högl warned, calling the atrophy of the Bundeswehr a serious risk to Germany’s defense capabilities.
Despite a €100 billion special fund German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government pushed through after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Bundeswehr still lacks the tools to fight a modern war, according to the report, with outdated equipment and a lack of munitions impeding its combat ability. The force needs updated infantry fighting vehicles, naval combat ships, missile defense and more combat drones, among other weapons systems, according to the report.
“The Bundeswehr still has too little of everything,” Högl said.
The German military’s lack of preparedness comes at a time when the United States’ commitment to NATO is more uncertain than at any point in the alliance’s history. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called into question America’s willingness to come to Europe’s defense unless Europe spends far more on its own armed forces and has already halted U.S. military aid to Ukraine and stopped intelligence-sharing with the country.
Those moves have prompted the conservative chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, to move to effectively exempt defense spending from the strictures of Germany’s debt brake, a radical departure from previous fiscal austerity meant to supply the Bundeswehr with the funding it needs for the long term. Merz’s spending plan, however, must first pass through parliament with the support of the Greens, which is by no means assured.
