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A KSK unit during an exercise at its location in Calw

Photo: Thomas Niedermueller / Getty Images

The Bundeswehr's Special Forces Command (KSK) is getting a new commander. According to SPIEGEL information, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently decided in an internal personnel meeting that Brigadier General Alexander Krone should take over the leadership of the 1,500 KSK soldiers.

The elite unit stationed in Calw is trained to free hostages abroad and for missions behind enemy lines and is equipped with the latest technology. The approximately 1,500 soldiers undergo extremely tough training; each command team is equipped with specialists and can act largely independently in an emergency.

For the coming years, the federal government has also committed NATO commando forces to possible operations for national and alliance defense. During a recent visit, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the association would make a contribution "to ensure that no one attacks our country, that no one attacks our alliance territory."

The previous KSK boss Ansgar Meyer is moving to the Bundeswehr's Internal Command Center. Meyer had been in office since 2021 after scandals surrounding right-wing extremist tendencies in the association caused negative headlines. The then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, CDU, then had one of the KSK companies dissolved and started an extensive program for internal reforms.

Brigadier General Krone most recently commanded the Panzergrenadier Brigade 37, and last year he was also commander of the land forces of the NATO Rapid Reaction Unit.

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General Alexander Krone is supposed to make the KSK fit for NATO

Photo: Ronny Hartmann / AFP / Getty Images

It is said in Bundeswehr circles that the experience with NATO would certainly be very useful for the new KSK commander. In the future, the command will provide the alliance with so-called special operations groups; the small operational groups could be used to defend the alliance area in an emergency. National and alliance defense is “Priority 1,” said Krone’s predecessor recently at one of the few press events in Calw.

Aside from the new tasks, Krone will have to focus on recruiting young elite warriors. The command has been suffering from declining numbers of applicants for years. In recent years, so few young men and women have applied to Calw that the association has hardly been able to replace the soldiers who are leaving.

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