Germany is reportedly implementing a serious reform of the country's military, led by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
The army seeks to renew “Making the force more capable of defending Germany and its allies.”
German wave She reported that The new defense guidelines state: “We must be the backbone of Europe’s collective deterrence and defense. Our populations, as well as our partners in Europe, North America and globally, expect us to live up to this responsibility.
However, in the real world, things are not going so well for the German army, as the deployment of the frigate Hessen in the Red Sea demonstrated.
Julian Röpke, editor of the German newspaper Bild, wrote about what he calls… “An incredible double accident in the German Navy off the coast of Yemen!”
The drama happened on Monday evening “A symbol of the partly desolate state of the German army under Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.”
Read: Trump's tough talks: Germany pledges to spend more than 2% of GDP on defense 'for decades to come', presses European allies to do the same
Bild newspaper reported:
“The German warship's radar systems incorrectly identified a drone flying overhead as hostile. The Hessians then fired two missiles at them.
But in fact, the unknown aircraft was an American MQ-9 Reaper drone (wingspan 20 metres, price 30 million euros).
A blessing in disguise for Americans: Both German SM2 interceptor missiles [failed to] She reached her goal for technical reasons, but instead fell into the sea without achieving anything.
Germany deployed the frigate Hessen with about 240 soldiers on board.
The Reaper drone flies at 40,000 feet, while the maximum operating altitude of the German SM-2 anti-aircraft missile is more than 65,000 feet — so it should have been within firing range.
Defense Department spokesman Michael Stempfel confirmed on Wednesday that the drone that was targeted and shot at could not have been initially intended for any of the allied nations. Then the Hess ship tried to shoot down this drone, but it did not succeed.”
Before launching the missiles, the frigate asked all allied countries about the drone, and no country in the area of operations reported it.
Only later did it emerge that it was an “unreported drone.”
US drones are reportedly operating in the region on missions unrelated to the operation in the Red Sea.
German opposition lawmaker Florian Hahn said Olaf Schulz and his dysfunctional coalition hid problems from lawmakers.
“We have only now discovered when asked that it is no longer possible to purchase some ammunition from the Hessen frigate because there is no longer any industrial capacity to do so.
Therefore, when the stock is exhausted, the Navy will not be able to restock it – and will have to withdraw the frigate. “Parliament decided to deploy without knowing that there was clearly an ammunition problem with the Class 124 frigate.”
Read more:
Germany on the march: renewing the German army to become the backbone of European defense, and Berlin doubles its military aid to Ukraine
