In response to the Ukraine crisis, the chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, André Wüstner, called for an immediate program to improve the Bundeswehr's equipment and a further increase in the defense budget.

"Waiting is not even the second best option," said Wüstner on Saturday on ZDF.

"We have massive problems in the areas of ammunition, vehicles, ships, aircraft and spare parts." Politicians must now "finally wake up".

This applies not only to the strategic realignment of Russia policy, but also to the deployment of the Bundeswehr.

The new CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer also called for a significant increase in the defense budget on ZDF.

It is important to "improve the Bundeswehr's alliance and defense capabilities and, very specifically, to strive for the two percent target by 2023 if possible," said Mayer.

He was referring to the NATO partner's commitment to spend two percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Most recently, Germany was 1.55 percent.

Mayer: Bundeswehr lacks warm underwear

Mayer said there were reports that the Bundeswehr was missing elementary things like warm underwear.

That must be “an alarm signal for German politics”.

Appropriate equipment is required.

That is not to be equated with rearmament.

The army inspector Alfons Mais sounded the alarm on Thursday.

In his 41st year of peacetime service, he didn't think he would have to experience another war.

"And the Bundeswehr, the army that I'm allowed to lead, is more or less blank," he said.

Regarding the Ukrainian demands for German weapons and military equipment, Wüstner said on ZDF that the Bundeswehr itself was at the limits of its capabilities and supplies.

"We can't supply what we don't have ourselves," he said.

Ukraine has submitted a wish list to the federal government that includes night vision, tracking and mine clearance devices.

The federal government rejects the delivery of lethal weapons for reasons of principle, but may want to deliver other armaments.

The list is still being checked.

Meanwhile, SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich warned against planning higher military spending as a sole reaction to the Ukraine war.

“We will provide the Bundeswehr with everything it needs for its mission.

But more rearmament cannot be the answer,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (Saturday).

"It would be wiser to finally pool our military forces in Europe."

An SPD parliamentary group spokesman added on Saturday that Mützenich was not against better equipment for the Bundeswehr, i.e. not against a higher defense budget as in previous budget years.

He only points out that rearmament cannot be the sole and wisest answer.

Trittin: "Blatant equipment deficiencies"

Finance Minister and FDP leader Lindner had previously said "that the funds for the Bundeswehr must be increased" because the German armed forces "have been managed for many, many years to wear out".

German politics must learn “that the defense of alliances is also a political priority”.

The foreign policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, Jürgen Trittin, expects that the war will have an impact on the first budget of the government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP.

"The Bundeswehr's lack of equipment and skills must be remedied, as must the deficits that we have in the area of ​​diplomacy and development cooperation." That's already in the coalition agreement.

There are “blatant equipment deficiencies” in the Bundeswehr.

In addition, Germany must improve its capabilities for NATO's joint self-defence, for example in the area of ​​air defense.

"That will put the coalition before discussions." Trittin emphasized: "More money for external security in the current crisis situation does not fit with the dogma of the black zero."