In addition to additional money, the Bundeswehr will also receive a new management structure from October. Then a territorial leadership command should organize the internal operations – national defense, catastrophes, pandemics. The first leader already made a name for himself during the Corona crisis.
As a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Corona crisis and the flood disaster, the Bundeswehr will be given a territorial command on October 1st. So far, the operational management of the domestic forces has been spread across many areas – now it is being bundled in Berlin and reported directly to the Ministry of Defense, Minister Christine Lambrecht said. Major General Carsten Breuer, who most recently also led the Corona crisis team in the Chancellery, is to become the head of the development staff and first commander.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine underlined the need to align the command organization of the armed forces more closely with the requirements of national and alliance defense, the ministry said. The new command will be responsible, among other things, for the operational management of national forces in the context of homeland security, including administrative and disaster relief and civil-military cooperation. It is scheduled to be operational by March 2023.
The command will take on essential tasks in the command of the armed forces in Germany, while the operational command in Schwielowsee near Potsdam leads the missions abroad. The Bundeswehr will then have two command posts for different tasks. With the reorganization, the ministry is also following the findings from the work of the Corona crisis team, which means that a crisis team can quickly start work in the Chancellery in special situations.
“With the new command, we can quickly provide the necessary forces for a national crisis team beyond the purely military tasks” – for example in the case of flood disasters or the Covid pandemic, Lambrecht said. The command will also be responsible for national relocations in connection with NATO planning for national and alliance defense. In addition, it will organize the transfer of allied forces through Germany in coordination with NATO. The new command aims to establish a national territorial leadership capability across the entire spectrum of issues of peace, crisis and war.
The command emerged from the Territorial Tasks Command of the Bundeswehr, previously headed by Breuer, which is responsible for civil-military cooperation in Germany. This is reinforced by personnel from the Bonn-based Armed Forces Base Command. In order to strengthen the capabilities of the troops in connection with the German contribution to the fulfillment of NATO alliance obligations, there are to be 1000 posts for an additional logistics battalion. In addition, 700 posts are planned for two additional NBC defense companies and 200 posts for an additional military police company.
