What used to be true is no longer true.

When it comes to the defense budget, traditionally the subject of emotionally charged political debates, the majority of members of the Bundestag currently only know one slogan: more money for the troops.

Even the SPD parliamentary group leader, Rolf Mützenich, actually an inveterate armaments skeptic, once again pointed out on Thursday how important the planned massive increase in funds for the Bundeswehr is in view of the "new security policy situation".

It is true that “defensiveness is not created solely by the military,” said Mützenich in Berlin.

"Nevertheless, the acceptance of the special fund is there in my group."

Lorenz Hemicker

Editor in Politics

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Of course, the Russian attack on Ukraine would not have been necessary to realize that the Bundeswehr urgently needed money;

a glance at the most recent household would have sufficed.

Measured by the size of the federal budget, the budget has so far been quite manageable.

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, 46.93 billion euros of the 547.73 billion euros spent last year went to the defense budget.

This corresponds to a share of 8.57 percent;

slightly more than for the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, slightly less than for the Federal Ministry of Health.

A look at the rough spending structure of the defense budget shows that the spending on new tanks, combat aircraft and warships, which is often at the center of the debate, only accounts for a fraction of all spending.

The Department of Defense uses more than four-fifths for day-to-day operations.

These include the costs for around 266,000 soldiers and civilian employees as well as for the maintenance of the infrastructure and all vehicles and weapon systems.

Added to this are further expenditures in the billions for supplies and for ongoing obligations within the framework of NATO.

Investments are only denied by the rest.

According to the Ministry of Finance, 8.33 billion euros were earmarked for military procurement in the most recent budget.

This corresponds to less than twenty percent of the military budget.

Among the largest items were new combat aircraft of the Eurofighter type, followed by field equipment and quartermaster material, combat vehicles and ammunition.

A further 1.56 billion euros were invested in research, development and testing of armaments projects.

Even if spending on equipment in the defense budget has recently approached the NATO target of 20 percent, the Bundeswehr is suffering from a huge modernization backlog.

Because she has never met the quota.

Likewise, the federal government has so far failed to fulfill its commitment to NATO to spend two percent of gross domestic product on defense.

When the defense budget increased by 1.3 billion euros last year, according to the Ministry of Defence, armament-intensive expenditure rose by at least nine percent.

According to the ministry, the future frigate 126 and a radar system for the Eurofighter have benefited from this.

In addition, the faster arrival of Eurofighters was made possible, which could replace older models from the first tranche of combat aircraft.

Other important projects include the procurement of transport vehicles and the NH-90 NFH multi-role frigate helicopter.

The permanent increase in the defense budget to at least two percent of gross domestic product – including the “special fund” outside the regular budget of EUR 100 million for armaments expenditure – which the federal government has announced is likely to change the composition of the defense budget significantly.

Experts assume that the proportion of defense spending will increase significantly.

How high it will be exactly is still open.

One of the reasons for this is that it is still unclear in what period of time the special fund must be used up.

How quickly can the money be spent sensibly?

According to calculations by the German Society for Foreign Relations, the defense budget would have to grow to at least 75 billion euros in the current year in order to reach the two percent target.

Rising inflation is not yet taken into account.

It is also questionable whether so many additional billions of euros can be sensibly spent on armaments investments in a short period of time.

There are concerns not only with regard to the often lengthy procurement procedures, but also with regard to insufficient capacities in the defense industry.

Projects worth billions in particular often run for more than ten years and require large sums of money every year instead of a large sum.

It obviously does not fail because of the need.

In its report on "material operational readiness" published in December, the Ministry of Defense itself called the need to modernize the armed forces an "unchanged major challenge". Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) announced on Monday that she would first of all improve the personal equipment of the soldiers.

In the Baltic States, where German troops are currently securing NATO's eastern flank, many soldiers are freezing because they lack winter clothing.

At least that can be changed quickly.