Germany announced the need to increase the size of the army to 260 thousand people.
The size of the German army needs to be increased to 260 thousand people to meet the growing defense needs of NATO. This was reported by the Politico newspaper on May 30, citing a statement from the Bundeswehr Military Union.
"I assume that depending on what is decided at the NATO summit, we will need an additional 40,000 to 60,000 soldiers <...> This means that the active forces will have to gradually grow to 260,000 soldiers," the newspaper quoted Andre Wustner, chairman of the Bundeswehr Association.
At the same time, at the moment there are about 203 thousand soldiers in the German army, Wustner said.
In addition, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stressed that the recruitment program would initially be voluntary, but did not rule out the possibility of taking more drastic measures. He clarified that the initiative will be introduced if there are not enough volunteers.
Artyom Sokolov, a researcher at the Center for European Studies at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies, told Izvestia on May 26 that the main problem of the German army is not weapons, but the quality and quantity of personnel. He added that Germany needs to change the system of recruitment of the armed forces, to switch from the voluntary principle of recruitment to the system of universal military service.
At the same time, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, ordered to ensure full combat readiness of the country's army by 2029. At the same time, the goal is to increase the number of the Bundeswehr to about 200 thousand active military personnel. According to him, a permanent reserve of 60,000 people has now been formed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
