Insight: Germany sweats on more than its equipment shortage
The pace of military procurement progress, underfunding and a shortage of equipment across its armed forces has long frustrated German decision-makers and continues to be held up by critics as a sign that the country lacks both the will and ambition to be a reliable and trusted European ally.
Evidence from frontline battalions hardly supports the county’s case either. For the better part of the last two decades, operational units have been consistently working with 70% of their ‘required equipment’, relying on the deficit to be made up by other units once deployments are assigned, according to Torben Schütz,
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