The German Minister of Defense has asked the gun manufacturers to complain and to complain and to “deliver and to restore Europe and to“ deliver ”the production to increase the booming expenditure plans in his country.
Boris Pistorius He told the Financial Times that his government had raised many years of concerns about the industry by rationalizing hundreds of billions of euros in new military spending.
“There is no reason to complain anymore,” said Pistorius in the FT interview. “The industry knows exactly that it is now responsible for the delivery.”
The industrial groups had to capture their end of the bargain, he said when Europe wanted to hold Russian aggression if they weaken the interest of the US continent in the security of the continent. Berlin endeavors to increase its annual defense spending by 2029 to EUR 162 billion, which has increased by 70 percent compared to this year.
“Unfortunately, we still experience delays on individual projects in which everything seems to be populated, and then delays occur on the industry side – which I then have to consider,” said Pistorius.
“Industry has to increase its capacities. This applies to ammunition, drones, tanks – really for almost all areas.”
The 65-year-old Social Democrat is commissioned to “deliver a change in time to the sea trade in the defense of his country. The goal that was announced three years ago on Russia’s full scale Invasion of Ukrainethe armed forces should change after decades of underneath and gave Germany a leading role in European security.
Pistorius is supposed to meet the US defense minister Pete Hegseth in Washington on Monday, where he said that he would discuss a “street map” for US security support for Europe. A generally expected reduction should not leave any gaps into the ability differences that would risk “to make an invitation to Putin,” he warned.
Ukraine and the urgent question of the US Patriot Air Defense Systems are also on the agenda after the deliveries to Kyiv were carried out by Washington. Berlin has already given three of his once 12 strong shares of the critical patriot systems.
“We only have six in Germany,” said Pistorius, adding that two other Poles had been awarded and at least one was not always available due to maintenance or training. “These are really too little, especially if you definitely can no longer give the NATO skills that we have to achieve.”
Pistorius said he would discuss a proposal that he made to Hegseth last month to have Germany bought two Patriot systems from the USA for Kyiv.
However, he said Germany would not deliver its long-term taurus missiles despite a wave of the latest Russia air strikes and a new request from Kyiv to Ukraine.
The minister also leaned joint borrowings or Eurobonds on EU Defense spending. When asked about suggestions for such a loan, he said: “No.”
“Eurobonds mean that those who have already done or do their homework for paying what others don’t do,” he added.
Pistorius said his ministry was working on a procurement plan for equipment, including tanks, U boats, drones and combat aircraft until well into the 2030s to promise conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz ‘to make the German army most strongest.
Long -term contracts with “regular annual purchase obligations” would like to deal with the long -term complaint in the industry that they cannot invest in expensive new production lines without certainty through future orders.
The measure would prevent German soldiers from cumbling around with outdated weapons, he said. In 2022, when Europe joined the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion to Ukraine, the then head of the German army said that his troops were practically “empty hands”.
“The weakness in the past has always been that replacement were only procured when the existing ones were practically disappearing or broken,” said Pistorius. “We need a system that renews itself through continuous deliveries for many years, so that the number of operational tanks always remains the same.”
On drones in which innovations take place at a dizzying pace, he promised that Germany would ensure that the armed forces only received “state -of -the -art” products. He added that he would allow for weapon producers to make payments: “These are all new instruments that should help the industry to gain dynamics.”
In a report published in the last month of The Think-Tank Bruegel and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, showed that European ammunition and artillery production capacity had increased significantly in the past three years. However, it warned that the production rate of the Leopard 2A8, manufactured by the Franco-German-Knds, continued to remain behind what we and Russian equivalents remained behind the Rheinmetall.
Even when he asked the industry to accelerate, Pistorius said that he should improve procurement. “We have to get faster. We have to become more effective. We have to throw rules overboard when it comes to procurement and planning.”
Pistorius is known as a heterosexual speaker and a convinced supporter of Ukraine and has become the most popular politician in the country since his Defense Minister. He is the only member of the previous cabinet, led by Olaf Scholzto have stayed in the post since the change of government in May.
Pistorius said the country was faster than he expected to accept the need. He pointed out over questions from which it indicates that the majority of the population supported higher defense spending and the introduction of a voluntary form of military service next year. “This way of thinking is in full swing,” he said.
Pistorius comes from Osnabrück in the northwestern state of Lower Sachsen, where British soldiers were stationed to protect NATO’s eastern flank, and stood up in his party because he had chosen military service and not for a civil alternative.
He was also used for the use of US -Pershing II missiles in West Germany in the 1980s when most of his other Social Democrats demonstrated. It was recently he was criticized Through the old guard of the party, which has pushed for relaxation with Moscow.
“I was always convinced that you can only do this from a position of the strength from eye level if you would like to talk about peace and relaxation,” he said. “Not to intimidate someone, but to make it clear that we know what we can do – we want to live with you in peace, but don’t think we are weak or that we will not defend ourselves. That is still true today.”
The inauguration this year of a constant brigade of German soldiers in Lithuania to protect the Baltic State – one of Pistorius’ flagship projects – was a strong symbol of Germany’s commitment to NATO almost four decades after the collapse of the iron curtain, he said.
“The British, the Americans and the French were in Germany to protect our eastern flank,” he said. “And today are Lithuania, the Baltic States, Poland the eastern flank and we have to make a contribution there.”
He insisted that troops from Germany, who had been a military reluctance for years to respond to the horrors of World War II for years, were willing to kill Russian soldiers to a NATO member state in the event of an attack by Moscow.
“If the deterrent does not work and Russia attacks, will it happen? Yes,” he said. “But I would recommend that you just go to Vilnius and talk to the representatives of the German Brigade there. You know exactly what your job is.”
