The German Navy’s Special Forces Command (KSM) will have to continue to wait for new combat boats to replace the RHIB 1010 still in use, the Hartpunkt news portal reported on August 30.
According to a statement from the office of Ingo Goedechen, a member of the Bundestag and CDU/CSU defence expert in the budget committee, the conclusion of a new contract for the purchase of combat ships has been postponed indefinitely. This threatens to derail the entire project if the funds allocated for it are not available in the future.
The approval by the budget committee of a new contract for the purchase of combat ships, which was scheduled for the 26th calendar week of 2024, has not yet taken place due to a lack of applications. In August this year, the ministry refused to provide information on the timing of the procurement project.
“The Ministry does not say how the project to acquire operational vessels for the ICV is progressing and why the government was unable to meet its objective of presenting this issue to Parliament in June 2024.”the statement says.
Thus, the planned arrival of combat ships by the end of 2026 will be virtually impossible. It is noted that this will lead to a dangerous gap in the capabilities of the Navy’s special forces. However, the ministry has informally stated that it expects to receive a procurement proposal within 2025.
“The Bundeswehr is facing enormous challenges, but the entire system keeps failing over the simplest of things. What we are seeing with the ships of the naval task force is a tragedy.”budget expert Goedehens criticises: Even with manageable procurement projects, it seems impossible to implement them quickly and successfully.
Goedehens wonders why Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) himself cannot successfully implement such managed projects. Practice shows that, despite strong words and numerous statements, the procurement situation for the Bundeswehr has not improved under Pistorius.
The purchase of new KSM ships has already failed once. The contract was finally awarded in June 2022, despite widespread reservations from parliament, which feared that the award would fail due to technical problems. At the beginning of 2023, the contract was cancelled because the selected Finnish manufacturer could not meet the extensive technical requirements.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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