The Bundeswehr has too few ships for the tasks that it receives from the policy. It rich in two parallel operations, as is the case currently in the Aegean and Libya, and the Navy is at the limit of their capacity.
The result is that Germany can not send frigates in the four Constant use of associations of Nato. In a time in which Russia, Nato challenges, the Alliance to Doubt Germany’s Alliance capability. In Nato, says a high-ranking naval officer, had decreased confidence in the abilities of the German naval forces recently. The shortage of funds is also a reason that the Bundeswehr will soon send a ship more in the “Sophia”Mission off the Libyan coast.
accident on the “Sachsen”
in Order to understand how it could happen, it helps to take a look. After the end of the East-West conflict, the Navy lost two-thirds of their ships and boats. Of the past 15 frigates and destroyers remained nine, where a ship is to be made this year. The frigates are the backbone of the naval forces. You can combat the U-boats, surface vessels and threats from the air. Most of them are already more than 20 years old and repair is due.
However, even with the newer ships, there are always problems. In the past year a serious accident occurred on the 15-year-old “Saxony”. A flight body and burned lit, from the left, but on Board. The three frigates type F 124, the “Saxons”, are therefore only to a limited extent.
philosophy versus working-time regulation
The Navy ships were sent in the past three decades, in missions for which they were not designed. Operations against pirates in the Horn of Africa, the Unifil mission off the coast of Lebanon, but also the 2015 running missions in the Aegean and off the coast of Libya as a result of the refugee crisis have worn, especially the high-loaded frigates. You had to more-than-expected Overhaul in the shipyard.
As particularly disadvantageous practiced philosophy of the Navy is proving to become also the for decades. After that, a ship has its own crew. For some years now, the European working time regulation and the Secretary of defense Ursula of the Leyen (CDU) demanded better compatibility of family and service request, but a strict limit on the time, the Navy soldiers at sea. No soldier is to be longer than six months to be at home. Because in the case of a use such as the Mission, “Sophia”, but the two-week Transfer from the home port of Wilhelmshaven to the Mediterranean sea included in the calculation, which has the consequence that, on the year, three vessels including crew be available.
