German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/24, pp. 1991-1992.
Right honorable Frau President.
Right honorable colleagues. Dear viewers in the hall and on YouTube.
The art of government is
based on foresight [Vorausschau] and precisely this capability, the capability
of foresight, has been lacking in the German defense policy for at least three
decades. Now that we all at once have woken up, the government wildly waves its
arms about, extending itself in a heedless flurry of activity. Even the Greens
want to buy panzers.
Thus, where do we stand?
Russia has attacked the Ukraine and a war rages on European soil. It is at once
conspicuous: Oops, the Bundeswehr is certainly not capable of defense. Ladies
and gentlemen, you should have for once in the last four and a half years listened
to our colleagues. Our defense spokesmen have ever again said this to you and
insisted on a better equipment of the Bundeswehr.
Agnieszka Brugger (Greens): You mean the friends of
Putin?
Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): And lead to Moscow!
Now we are in the situation that
the defense capability of Germany needs to be renewed by a government which
shortly before the beginning of the Ukraine war wanted to immediately decrease
defense expenditures.
Marcus Faber (SPD): That is just rubbish!
The populist announcement of
the 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr by Chancellor Scholz was
evidently thought of as a threat to force the Russians to the negotiating table
with the Ukrainians.
Sebastian Schäfer (Greens): You take your talking points from Moscow, or?
That unfortunately is
actually not working out very well, and for the German defense policy this
policy for policy’s sake now produces the pressure, following the 100 billion
euro rhetorical bomb, that a conclusive concept needs to be put forward quick
time. Easier said than done.
Our delegation welcomes the
budget increase for item 14 and we would be ready to share in further budget
increases with which we may approach NATO’s 2 percent goal. Here, however, two
things also need be said. Point one: NATO needs to again become a purely
defensive alliance.
Alexander Lambsdorff (FDP): Then what else is it?
Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): What else is it?
For the other – point two – a
single budget increase will not help us without a fundamental structural reform
and a reform of the procurement system; for we fear that now at high speed will
provided equipment which plainly does not correspond to the latest state of
technique and to the requirements of the troops.
Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD): No idea!
This fear is shared by
Christian Mölling, research director for the German Council on Foreign
Relations, who in the Handelsblatt expressed the expectation that much money
will be unnecessarily expended for partially overhauled materiel.
To that unfortunately
corresponds a statement of Defense Minister Lambrecht from the Handelsblatt.
She said, cite: “We do not expect everything will be planned out to the last
detail”. Ja, that refers to the immediate program for the basic equipment of
the troops. We also find it very laudable that she insists on this; yet,
despite that: The Defense Ministry must guarantee that means are efficiently
committed and the way to squandering will not be opened.
The troops of course require
more than radio equipment and underwear; for example, fighter jets, which leads
us directly to the procurement planned by you of the F-35. For the uninitiated:
The F-35 is a stealth, multi-purpose, fifth generation combat aircraft built by
the American firm Lockheed Martin. What’s interesting about this procurement is
that the new Federal government now wants to prepare for 35 of the aircraft,
although the old government had already rejected this in 2019.
And see here, an article in
the Welt flits about our ears with the nice headline of “Scrap-plane F-35?
Pentagon Papers Uncover 845 Failures in the New Bundeswehr Jet”. The most
important point of criticism in the paper is the F-35’s lack of reliability. Thus,
the F-35A planned for the Bundeswehr was mission ready on a yearly average of
just 54 percent in 2020. In comparison: Other modern combat jets have a mission
readiness of at least 80 percent. The F-35 is obviously a hangar queen.
But it gets better. These F-35s
should also be purchased for the so-called nuclear participation for which we
are obligated by treaty. That means in case of emergency that the aircraft
shall be equipped with the free fall atomic weapon B61. Yet presently the F-35 cannot
in fact carry the B61. The reason: A software failure which already for long
exists and the elimination of which will last for years. The U.S.A. itself has
meanwhile on account of the problem abbreviated its order.
Here now arise a pair of very
interesting questions for the Frau Minister and Herr Scholz. They want to
procure an aircraft for the nuclear participation, yet the F-35 cannot
presently perform this nuclear participation. I ask you: Did you know that? And
if you did know that, why then after all did you order it? Or did you not know
that? Then I ask myself: Why did you not know it? And naturally also
interesting is the question: Did the old government know that this project on
that account was stopped, but no one had told you, and now here we stand,
having drawn the loser from the international scrapped weapons gnomes?
Quite honestly, we fear that
this Federal government with the 100 billion euro special fund sets out not
only on an ordnungspolitische going-astray – certainly, that the FDP takes part
in this is also a scandal – but also will more damage than be of use for a
sustained toughening [Ertüchtigung] of our armed forces.
Vice-president Petra Pau: Herr Member Espendiller, do you consent to a question or remark from the SPD delegation?
– Just the same as a short intervention.
– In regards the anchoring planned by you of this special fund in the Basic Law,
we fear that you in the long-term will thereby annul the debt brake; I think of
– ja, we know – how the bottom line runs.
I could say still more on
this point, but we will have ample opportunity for that in the consultations. I
hope by then more reason is called upon in the ranks of the government, and I
am grateful for the attention.
Alexander Lambsdorff (FDP): Back to the theme.
[trans: tem]
