The German government is to spend part of its €50bn economic stimulus package on supplies for its armed forces, possibly including submachine guns, military vehicles and underwater mine detectors.
The revelation has upset anti-war politicians and raised questions about the effectiveness of measures intended to help Germany overcome a deep recession
The defence ministry said it would receive almost €500m ($633m, £444m) from the stimulus package. Although it would spend about half the windfall on the renovation and construction of buildings and barracks, a further €226.2m had been pencilled in to buy weapons, military vehicles and combat systems.
A provisional defence ministry shopping list includes 1,000 Heckler & Koch sub-machine guns (€3m), 34 “Dingo” patrol vehicles (€24.4m), 10 armoured Fennek reconnaissance vehicles (€35m) and five Seafox underwater mine-detection drones (€34m).
The draft was obtained by Griephan, a specialist defence and security publication, and its veracity confirmed to the Financial Times by officials in Berlin.
“The Bundeswehr [Germany’s military force] is one of the most important sources of contracts for the German economy so it stands to reason that it will make the most of the possibilities to keep up this support via the economic stimulus package,” said Franz Josef Jung, defence minister.
Inge Hoeger, parliamentary disarmament expert for the radical, anti-war Left party, accused the government of using “the cloak of combating the economic crisis to accelerate armament of the Bundeswehr”.
“It is bogus to claim the purchase of tanks and combat drones represents an economic stimulus programme,” she added.
The defence ministry insisted that the items were urgently needed “to protect lives”. The German army is involved in several overseas missions, including a deployment of up to 4,500 troops in Afghanistan.
The spending plans have the de facto support of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party and coalition-partner the Social Democratic party, which combined to push the economic stimulus package through parliament.
A Left party spokesman acknowledged that the German public was divided about whether it was an appropriate way to fix the economy.
The list contained long-standing requests from the military that could be quickly implemented as a result of the new funds, a defence ministry spokesman said, adding that some details could change.
Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ba7aa86-0687-11de-ab0f-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
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