Germany´s rearmament remains slow

According to a new report by the Kiel Institute, Germany's military spending is insufficient to cope with Russian threats and strategic challenges. The German army's procurement system is slow, and at the current pace, it would take decades to restore the army to 2004 levels. According to the report, at the current pace, Germany would rebuild its 2004 stockpile of combat aircraft by 2038, tanks by 2066, and howitzers only by 2121. By contrast, Russia is radically increasing its weapons production capacity, including advanced systems, and it is now in a position to produce as many weapons in six months as all of Germany's armed forces currently field. Germany's military spending increased for the second consecutive year by 9 % to $66.8 billion in 2023 under the so-called German Zeitenwende strategy. At the end of 2023, the government revised its spending plan and announced that it intended to meet the 2% target every year from 2024. Germany's defence spending was 1.5% of GDP in 2023. Increase in arms spending may divert financial flows away from the country's social spending and thus lead to rising public discontent. However, a financial injection in the area of defence is inevitable and is taking place across Europe. It remains questionable to what extent the United States will maintain its military presence after potential Trump victory in presidential election and there is already a debate about minimum defence spending moving beyond the 2 % GDP target. In the EU, between 2022 and 2023, countries with the largest military growth were Poland (75%), Finland (54%), Denmark (39%) and the Netherlands (14%), while Russia increased by 24%. In contrast, Greece (-17%), Italy (-6.5%) and Romania (-4.7%) saw relative reductions in spending. The new European commission, which has made defence one of its top priorities and plans to set up a new defence commissioner, with the new role designed to build up military manufacturing capacity in the EU.