Traffic light parties and the Union have decided on the main features of the planned special fund for the Bundeswehr. The proportion of the defense budget used for equipment was around 17 percent recently – comparatively little in a NATO comparison.
So far, Germany has only used a comparatively small proportion of its military spending to equip the Bundeswehr. This is shown by the Statista country comparison based on a NATO estimate. As a result, Germany only spent around 17 percent of its military spending on equipping and modernizing the Bundeswehr through research and development. NATO members Turkey, the USA and Poland, for example, use a significantly larger proportion of their total budget to equip their armed forces.
Germany has recently increased the share of military spending spent on equipment while reducing the share of personnel costs, as this Statista chart shows. The share of equipment expenditure rose from 12.9 percent to around 17 percent in the period from 2014 to 2020. The proportion of personnel costs, on the other hand, fell from 50.7 to 42 percent. The share of expenditure on infrastructure remained almost constant over the period. The share of other expenses rose from 32.6 percent to 37.4 percent.
In Germany, after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the lack of equipment for the Bundeswehr was discussed intensively. Three months after the announcement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the traffic light parties and the Union have now agreed on the main features of the planned special fund for the Bundeswehr. The money is to be used to increase the regular defense budget of around 50 billion euros over five years. With the planned law for the establishment of the special fund, an economic plan with the specific procurement projects should also be decided, the Union and the coalition further agreed. Armaments are to be ordered on a large scale in the near future.
