Court of Auditors Blames Ministry of Defence for Hiding Deficiencies in the Bundeswehr
For example, corvettes that were officially classified as "operational" had no armament. "For a long time," the ships had "no ready-to-use missiles," the Court of Audit found, according to the report. A naval ship without any weapons is not operational.
This also applies to submarines that lacked crews. A ship with no crew, contrary to what the Ministry represented, is not ready for action. The Court of Audit accuses van der Leyen, according to "Bild" newspaper, of “insufficient" information about the actual deficiencies in the Bundeswehr.
German Ministry of Defense finds itself transparent
The Federal Ministry of Defense responded with surprise to “Bild’s” report. "It was only our transparency initiative, which we had started during the previous legislative period, that has given parliament a clear view of the forces’ readiness," said a ministry spokesman. Now, it is “strange” to criticize these reports and to hold the Ministry responsible.
In principle, Ursula von der Leyen's department admits the massive gaps in the Bundeswehr’s readiness quite openly, and at the beginning of her term, when she immediately ordered an inquiry in all the forces, it was a revelation. In recent months, the desolate situation of the troops has always been the main argument as to why the budget for the defense sector should increase.
Nevertheless, the ministry abruptly rejected some points. Thus, "from a military point of view, a ship is ready to operate if it has the necessary equipment and armament for a particular purpose, and consequently the naval vessels could fulfill their current tasks, for example in the Mediterranean." The report’s "image" on this issue is " not correct.”
Only four Eurofighters ready to use
The criticism of deficiencies in the Bundeswehr had recently piled up. It became known, among other things, that not a single submarine was operational.
The criticism of the Court of Audit also confirms SPIEGEL’s research on the real operational readiness of the Air Force, which also looks much beautified. Thus, official statistics have reported about 30 Eurofighter fighter jets as operational, but the vast majority is currently not ready for action or maneuvering. Background issues are new technical problems with a self-defense system, and furthermore that far too few weapons for the jet have been purchased.
According to internal numbers of the air force, the actual operational readiness is therefore far lower than the official numbers. According to SPIEGEL information, only four Eurofighters are currently available for real operations - for example in case of a NATO requirement. The Bundeswehr did not want to comment on these numbers a good two weeks ago, because they are classified as "secret".
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