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March 22, 2024 – 4:54 p.m
Chief of Staff Carsten Breuer – Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP
The Chief of Staff of the German Army, General Carsten Breuer, has called for the rapid development of the country’s missile defense system due to potential threats from Russia – he spoke about this himself in an interview with the Funke media group, which was published on Friday.
“We have five to eight years. During this time, we need to create a missile defense system. There is no other choice. Russia will be able to start a war against NATO member countries within five to eight years. By then, Germany should also be in a position to repel such an attack”
– explained the commander according to MTI’s translation. This attack can take place across the entire battlefield: from cyber attacks to drones to missiles.
According to Breuer, Russian President Vladimir Putin is not hiding his intentions, but he believes that an attack on a Western country is the worst-case scenario right now. The commander rejected statements from Germany about the conflict in Ukraine, which talk about allowing a frozen state of war.
“Freezing a war presupposes that this situation is accepted on both sides. There is hardly a frozen conflict in the world that has not flared up again. Due to the current military situation, freezing the war in Ukraine does not seem possible or advisable,” Breuer said.
In February 2022, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz significantly increased defense spending and allocated 100 billion euros to the German army, breaking with his previous security policy. According to Breuer, 80 percent of the earmarked funds have already been committed and are scheduled to be fully committed by the end of this year.
“We are currently going through a difficult time. We have already ordered most of the materials, but they are not yet arriving at the teams at the pace I would like,” explained Breuer, who sees the €100 billion funding as an initial investment.
“We need to stabilize defense spending. In the long term, the defense budget should remain at 2 percent of GDP,” he said in the interview.
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