Views Of German Defense Ministry Leadership On Reforming Bundeswehr (2022)South Front

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Originally published on FactMilitary. Translated exclusively for SouthFront

The construction and development of the Bundeswehr is currently guided by the document “Bundeswehr Capability Profile – National Goals 2032” (1), which defines the goals and core capabilities to be achieved by the end of 2031.

However, according to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), the current circumstances require changes to its provisions as soon as possible. This is precisely the purpose of the document “Key elements of the Bundeswehr of the future ” (2) approved by the MoD in May 2021, which formulates the current requirements of the Bundeswehr (3) and corrects and clarifies key provisions of the set of measures for the short term (until 2025) and medium term (until 2031) to adapt not only the Bundeswehr, but also the Ministry of Defense to the challenges and threats of the future.

Cover page of the document “Key elements of the Bundeswehr of the future” issued by the German Ministry of Defence

The current requirements for the Bundeswehr are defined on the basis of four key areas of its activities.

Ensuring the timely allocation of response forces and their application in line with the evolving situation and taking into account the capabilities of these forces for national and collective defense tasks. Increasing the level of their readiness for operational response to security threats to Germany, other NATO and EU member states in the initial period of their emergence.
A reliable and effective peacetime and wartime command and control system for the armed forces, sufficient administrative, material, technical and other types of support for the activities of their own and allied troops (forces), as well as the protection of the population, important facilities and communication systems on German territory in order to ensure national defense.
Maintaining high combat readiness of troops (forces) for German participation in the resolution of military conflicts and crisis situations.
Preserving the key role of Germany in military cooperation within NATO and the EU, including expansion of the MoD’s involvement in foreign policy tasks, maintenance of technical readiness of weapons and military equipment (WME), modernization and development of new types of WME, as well as joint operational and combat training.

In general terms, the planned reform involves the following.

Further improvement of the organizational structure of the national armed forces and command and control system.
Conducting a complex of reorganization measures in the MoD of the Federal Republic of Germany, aimed at reducing its size and specifying the list of tasks to be solved. In this case it is planned to achieve a rational distribution of areas of responsibility and equal volumes of tasks between the Ministry’s structures, to eliminate redundancy in its leadership bodies, and to use the freed resources to develop the armed forces. At the same time the responsibility of the inspector general of the Bundeswehr for the approved general concept of national defense is to be increased.
In the near future, the Ministry of Defense intends to propose to the government the creation of a National Security Council (NSC), which must include representatives from all federal ministries. The NSC is to be entrusted with the task of recognizing threats to national security at an early stage, drafting recommendations for the Military and Political Leadership (MPL) on how to overcome them, developing a national foreign and security strategy for Germany, coordinating it with all federal ministries and presenting it to the Bundestag.

The reorganization of the Bundeswehr will be carried out in accordance with the following guidelines of the German Defense Ministry:

The total number of servicemen shall not exceed 203,300, including those serving voluntarily and reservists;
The organizational structure and composition of the armed forces, the deployment of formations and units, and their mission in general shall not be changed;
The list and number of leadership, specialist and other staff positions are to be adjusted to meet the future demand for regular troops;
With regard to the level of the Bundeswehr’s ability to defend national territory and to act within the framework of allied obligations, the training and combat readiness of the operational units must be significantly increased;
The resources freed up must be used to improve the effectiveness of the tactical command and control structure and the capabilities of the support forces;
In the interests of sustainable improvement in the readiness of weapons and military equipment for use, standard organizational structures should be established for all components of the Armed Forces (with the exception of the Joint Support Forces) with clearly defined authorities, responsibilities and areas of responsibility of the officials;
The responsibility for the acquisition, operation, maintenance and repair of weapons and military equipment should be assigned to the branches of the armed forces, and the responsibility for the acquisition of medicines and medical devices should be assigned to the central medical service of the Bundeswehr.

One priority in the development of the armed forces is to increase their ability to “project force into any or all operational areas outside Germany.

In fact, it will enhance the armed forces’ ability to concentrate troops outside the country and to sustain them in all operational spheres. (4) The most significant effort will be directed at the development of airlift.

In addition, the leadership of the Defense Ministry points to the need to expand the capabilities of troop transport in general in order to ensure the transit of troops (forces) of the USA and European allies, since Germany serves as the main transportation hub, and also provides the necessary transport infrastructure and services to manage the movement of personnel and military cargo.

It is taken into account that “operational flexibility” depends on the type and organizational and staff structure of the main combat formations. In this connection in the ground forces it is planned to create light (airmobile), medium (motorized) and heavy (mechanized) formations similar to the existing US Army combat brigades of three types, which in the last two decades have been successfully used by the main NATO ally – Germany.

Equally important in the development of the armed forces in the interests of both national and collective defense and crisis management is the enhancement of the Bundeswehr’s intelligence and EWR capabilities, material and medical support, maintenance and repair of military equipment, as well as the conduct of special operations.

The combat readiness of German troops (forces) is planned to be increased to a level that would allow for the organized and rapid deployment of the necessary component of forces and capabilities sufficient to effectively address collective defense and crisis management tasks within the NATO Air Force.

This implies:

The allocation of one ground force division dedicated to missions in the ground operating domain;
Forming the air component headquarters of the multinational grouping of troops (forces), as well as the basis for a multinational aviation formation to carry out tasks in the aerospace operational sphere;
Exercising permanent combat command of the headquarters of the German naval forces, including one to four operational formations of NATO naval or coalition or multinational grouping of troops (forces);
Taking responsibility for the coordination of their activities in the Baltic Sea to solve problems in the maritime operational sphere;
Deployment of a cyber operational formation, capable of liaising with similar coalition and multinational structures, operating in the cyber domain;
Formation of a coalition joint operational formation for communications support and a multinational coordination group for geo-meteorological and oceanographic support;
Allocation of support forces necessary for material, transport and other types of support for the activities of the above-mentioned elements.

The activities carried out in the armed forces are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the military command and control system.

The main efforts are planned to focus on expanding the capabilities of the command and control bodies for operational command of troops (forces) operating in different operational spheres, as well as for engaging the necessary command and control bodies, forces and means in multidimensional operations.

In particular, by the end of 2021 it was planned to form a council on strategic planning in the MoD, designed to support the central military authorities in developing defense policy and military planning.

The tasks of the Joint Operational Command of the Bundeswehr, which reports to the Inspector General, will not change. It will continue to be responsible for the leadership of the German troops abroad and, through its Special Operations Command, for the operational management of the Bundeswehr Special Operations Forces.

The resultant Bundeswehr Territorial Operations Command (5) (TOC), subordinate to the Inspector General, shall be responsible for the effective use of the territorial reserve, the regional security and support forces in peacetime and wartime, and in emergency situations, including internal security and territorial defense (TD), for timely assistance to federal and state authorities in dealing with natural and man-made disasters, and for the coordination of the military and police forces.

In addition to these forces, the TOC is planned to include other TD formations and institutions that are part of the Territorial Defense Command, which is to be disbanded and is subordinated to the Joint Support Forces (JSF).

The administrative structures of the headquarters of the new command are to be located in the buildings of the German Defense Ministry in Berlin and Bonn, together with the departments of the Defense Ministry.

The commander of the TOC will be responsible for its activities both in peacetime and wartime as well as in the event of natural and man-made disasters.

In addition, all 16 territorial commands of the federal states will be strengthened, which will make it possible to carry out assignment tasks more effectively throughout Germany. In particular, to protect the national territory, each of them is to have scadrilinear TD regiments with preferential manning of reservists, which will be fully deployed only in wartime or for the period of training camps.

In addition, the reform envisages that the Minister of Defense will subordinate the leadership academy to the inspector general of the Bundeswehr.

It is planned to establish a doctrinal center at the academy for the development and updating of conceptual, policy and strategic documents in the field of defense, building and development of the Bundeswehr, including the conduct of multidimensional operations. It also does not exclude the establishment of a joint operations (combat operations) center under the auspices of the Academy, similar to the existing one in NATO, which is responsible for researching issues of joint combat operations and training specialists in this area.

It is planned to transform the major commands of branches of armed forces – Army, Air Force, Navy, cyber-operation and information support forces into commands of troops (forces) in operational areas – the so-called monosphere operational commands (6) , which will be responsible for allocation of fully combat-ready formations and controls in the national and multinational (coalition) groupings of troops (forces).

Creation of these formations is aimed at testing new organizational structures of combat and auxiliary formations in respective components of the armed forces in the form of functionally self-sufficient modules to solve specific combat tasks. They will have the capability to operate coherently in all operational spheres under a single command with decentralized execution by each module of its assigned tasks.

The Army is planning to reassign the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) Defense Command and the Military Police Command, as well as the Multinational Civil-Military Cooperation Command that are part of the joint support force, to the existing Combined Armed Forces Command without changing their composition and structure. This will make it possible to resolve the existing problem of the troops’ lack of the appropriate staff units.

Besides, it is planned to work on the issues of improving cooperation with military-industrial complex enterprises specializing in the maintenance and repair of armored vehicles (first of all wheeled and tracked armored fighting vehicles) of the ground forces to ensure their proper condition and readiness for the intended use.

The German Air Command has been taking steps since May 2021 to form a Space Command (SC) in the structure of the Bundeswehr Air Force (n.d. Jüdem). Its attainment of full operational readiness will increase the capabilities of the German Armed Forces to plan and conduct operations in the aerospace operational domain. This command will solve problems for troops (forces) operating not only in the aerospace domain, but also in other operational spheres. Special attention is to be paid to the organization of close interaction with the cyber operations and information support forces (CIR). In addition, in the future it is planned to include the relevant components of the armed forces of allied states in the German Air Force Command.

In the naval forces the capabilities of the combat management system will be improved, including through achieving full operational readiness of the German Naval Staff (7) and qualitative improvement in the planning and management of naval formations during national and multinational (coalition) maritime exercises, operations and missions. In addition, the integration of the Naval Support Command and the Naval Arsenal, which is part of the Federal Office for Air Force, Information Technology and its Application by the Bundeswehr, as well as several other institutions related to maritime operations, into a single structure subordinate to the Naval Inspector is being considered in order to improve the combat capabilities of the Navy.

In the cyber operations and information support forces, measures to comprehensively improve military intelligence capabilities are planned. In particular, there will be organizational measures aimed at simplifying the structure of this component of the Armed Forces through the transition to a two-tiered structure.

The first level will be the management level, including the command that makes decisions and issues orders, and the management bodies that prepare proposals for making decisions and planning operations (activities) in the cyber space, while the second level will be the executive one (8). The freed positions should be used to increase the number of employees (personnel) directly solving specialized tasks.

In addition, the Joint Intelligence Center created (July 2020) as part of the Strategic Intelligence Command, responsible for the collection, processing, analysis and evaluation of intelligence information obtained by the national military intelligence system and received (provided) from military intelligence bodies of allied states, as well as for the preparation of intelligence and information documents, will be reassigned to the Inspector of the cyber operations and information support forces with the function of a central body for determining the priority needs for intelligence information.

The transition to the new organization and staffing structure of the cyber operations and information support forces is planned to be completed by October 1, 2022.

In addition, the branches of the armed forces and the cyber operations and information support forces will establish combat action centers in their respective operational areas, which are similar to the structures that exist in the armed forces of the United States and several other NATO countries.

They will combine the functions and tasks of a number of institutions of the respective components of the armed forces responsible for the elaboration and development of concepts of use, improvement of capabilities, operational and combat training of troops (forces) in their operational spheres. In turn, the cyber warfare center is subsequently to be incorporated into the Bundeswehr Research Center for Digitalization and Technology, which was formed through the joint efforts of two Bundeswehr universities – in Munich and Helmut Schmidt (Hamburg). (9) One of its activities is to conduct research into key digital technologies in the field of German defense and security.

In view of the forthcoming downsizing of the Joint Support Force, the role and place of the multinational Inter-Service Command Ulm, the Central Command of the Armed Forces, the Logistics Command and the Federal Academy for Security Policy in the organizational structure of the armed forces are to be reviewed. This takes into account the fact that since January 2021, the Ulm Command is actively pursuing a set of organizational and staffing measures aimed at reorienting its activities to meet the deployment and operational tasks of the EU response force headquarters.

The changes in the central medical service are associated with measures to improve the health of Bundeswehr personnel, to provide them with timely medical care and to restore their ability to work and their combat readiness. The main change will be aimed at further improving the quality of services for the personnel and the professionalism of medical personnel as well as strengthening the relation with the civilian health care system.

In this regard, the Inspector of Health Services (Chief Medical Officer of the Bundeswehr) is responsible for formulating the policy of the MoD, the legal and regulatory framework in the health sector, the effectiveness of the Bundeswehr Health Service in the organization of infectious disease prevention, medical care, medical rehabilitation and sanitary-epidemiological well-being of personnel and the management of military property and the provision of health services. The Health Command of the Bundeswehr could be set up in the future on the basis of the existing specialized departments of the Ministry of Defense and headquartered in Koblenz.

Within the framework of the measures envisaged by the MoD, a study of the mission and tasks of the central Bundeswehr Health Service will be carried out to determine the subordination of health care institutions and a number of its other components to the chiefs of the respective branches of the armed forces.

The above-mentioned measures to change the organizational structure of the command and control system of the armed forces were launched by the Ministry of Defense and the military command immediately after the document “Key elements of the Bundeswehr of the future” was published in May 2021.

All activities are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.

The German leadership thus recognizes that the country’s military organization does not fully meet the challenges facing the armed forces in today’s environment. For this reason, a set of measures aimed at reforming the species and interspecific components of the Bundeswehr and the central military administration to adapt the state’s military organization to the current and foreseeable challenges and threats is being implemented.

1 The “Bundeswehr Capabilities Profile – Nationale Ambition 2032” (Fahigkeitsprofil der Bundeswer – Nationale Ambition 2032), prepared by the German MoD, was signed by the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr and other representatives of the country’s military and political leadership on 3 September 2018. It contains the main conceptual points of a comprehensive reform of the Bundeswehr and is a confidential document.

2 The document Key Elements of the Bundeswehr of the Future is also available in English.

3 According to the constitution of Germany (Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) the armed forces (Streitkräfte) are part of the country’s military organization, the Bundeswehr, which also includes the military administration (Bundeswehrverwaltung), its civilian component. The Ministry of Defense exercises overall leadership over these components of the Bundeswehr.

4 The armed forces of the FRG distinguish the following operational areas: land, air, sea and cyber.

5 Overall leadership will be provided by the Ministry of Defense through the Joint Support Force Command (JFC).

6 The ground, air and space, maritime, and cyber operational commands.

7 Formed by Naval Command in January 2019 in Rostock.

8 Proposals for a new organizational and staffing structure for the SCIO are completed in October 2021.

9 The Bundeswehr Research Center for Digitalization and Technology (Zentrum für Digitalisierungs- und Technologieforschung der Bundeswehr) opens in August 2020.