New German Defense Minister: 100 billion Euros isn’t enough to modernize our army

The new German Minister of Defense said, on Friday, that the budget allocated for the modernization of the army, amounting to 100 billion Euros, isn’t sufficient.

“100 billion Euros won’t be enough,” Boris Pistorius told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the creation of a special fund for the modernization of the army on February 27, 2022, just three days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“With every new system, we also have new maintenance costs, and with every new mechanism, there are new, higher operating costs,” The German minister of defense, who took office last week added.

He also cast doubt on Germany’s annual defense budget of about 50 billion Euros, saying, “I don’t think this will be enough”.

The German official pointed out that the army will bear new costs estimated at billions to compensate for the weapons it sends from its stocks to Ukraine.

The list of new equipment includes 14 self-propelled howitzers, five Mars 2 rocket launchers, 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and 18,000 combat helmets.

And 14 Leopard tanks that Berlin pledged to send to Ukraine should also be compensated.

“In the medium and long term, we have to build a weapons industry in Europe that can do this… We need to speed up supply,” Pistorius said.

Pistorius is scheduled to hold talks with German defense Companies industry next week.

After years of cutting the defense budget, Scholz vowed in September to make the German army the best equipped in Europe.