The sluggish processes in the Ministry of Defense are repeatedly criticized. Department head Pistorius is now drawing conclusions and announcing a fundamental restructuring. “3,000 people at two locations in Bonn and Berlin are actually a lot,” he says.
The new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to fundamentally restructure and streamline his department. “We will also have to look at the structures of the ministry,” the SPD politician told Der Spiegel. “There must be clear responsibilities with clear demarcations and no parallel structures.”
Pistorius probably wants to set up a planning staff for this, which his predecessor Thomas de Maiziere of the CDU had abolished. “We need a central office that controls and coordinates decisions,” says Pistorius.
The minister is also thinking about streamlining the house. “3,000 people at two locations in Bonn and Berlin are actually a lot,” he says. His goal is to speed up processes and “reduce them to the essentials”.
Pistorius also wants to push for reforms in the procurement office of the Bundeswehr in Koblenz. He doesn’t want to resign from office. What needs to be reformed, however, are “procedures, structures, speed and methods that simply no longer fit the times after the Russian attack on Ukraine.”
Pistorius also advocated an increase in the budget. Every device newly procured from the special fund must be maintained. This alone increased the running expenses. If you order new tanks or howitzers, it all costs money again in entertainment. If there is no money for this, Pistorius Germany sees problems again in the next few years. “You just have to be clear about that now and set the course accordingly.”
The defense minister once again made it clear that Germany must at least achieve NATO’s two percent target. Actually, this could only be the basis. But how far Germany will go and when is another matter.
According to Pistorius, the role of the Bundeswehr and NATO forces has changed in the meantime. “It is clear that, unlike in the last three decades, we have to deal with the scenario of a military conflict again. We have to see ourselves as an alliance and defensive army again and therefore do many things differently than before.”
