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Leopard 2 tank of the Bundeswehr (in August 2021)
Photo:
SASCHA STEINBACH v EPA
The costs for the Bundeswehr's participation in the ongoing NATO maneuver “Steadfast Defender 2024” add up to almost 90 million euros.
This emerges from the government's answer to a question from Bundestag member Żaklin Nastić from the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which SPIEGEL has received.
At 50 million euros, transport costs are the largest expense item.
Eight million euros go to rents and leases and 5.5 million euros to business trips.
The Ministry of Defense reports 23.5 million euros as “other training costs”.
The maneuver is considered NATO's largest exercise since the end of the Cold War.
90,000 soldiers from 32 nations are involved.
The Bundeswehr is there with around 12,000 men and women.
According to media reports, the exercise scenario is a Russian attack on NATO territory.
The maneuver lasts until the end of May.
One of the alliance's last major exercises, the "Trident Juncture" maneuver, cost a comparable amount in 2018, around 90 million euros.
However, BSW defense expert Nastić is critical of the current exercise: “The federal government is exposing us all to considerable danger with its dangerous escalation policy.
Diplomacy must become the political standard again.«
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