Future of the Bundeswehr: Focus on infrastructure crisis and solutions!

Future of the Bundeswehr: Focus on infrastructure crisis and solutions!

On March 22, 2025, the Junge Union (JU) of the Germersheim district association visited the Air Force Training Battalion in the South Palatinate barracks. The battalion commander, lieutenant colonel Christian Zerau, led the members of the JU over the site and informed them about the current Bundeswehr equipment. Zerau paid special attention to the annual report of the military officers, who illuminates the challenges in the Bundeswehr's infrastructure. The material equipment of the barracks is secured, but many buildings are in need of renovation, and the necessary construction projects are delayed due to capacity bottlenecks in the state building administration.

The complete modernization of the air force training battalion may not be completed until 2035, warned Zerau. Moritz Knöller, the JU district chairman, emphasized the urgency to accelerate these processes in order to make the Bundeswehr sustainable. In a sign of support, the Bundeswehr General Inspector, General Eberhard Zorn, also visited the battalion.

background to the current situation of the Bundeswehr

The annual report on the state of the Bundeswehr is becoming more and more important, especially in the context of the threat of Russia and the difficulties in relationships with the USA. As ZDF , the Bundeswehr must be clearly powerful, whereby the core order of the alliance is in the foreground. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius speaks of the need to “become warming”.

NATO remains the foundation of Germany's security, and a brigade with 5,000 soldiers should be ready for use by 2027. Despite progress in some areas, the situation is still worrying. Eva Högl, military officer of the German Bundestag, demands more investments in future technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence, with the entire investment needs of the Bundeswehr 67 billion euros. In 2024, 1.6 billion euros were invested.

Lack of personnel and infrastructure problems

Despite good personal equipment of the soldiers, there is a lack of functional large equipment and spare parts. For example, Pfalz-Express that the Bundeswehr has not only to struggle with a blatant lack of personnel. At the end of 2024, only 181,174 soldiers were active, while the goal of an active strength of 203,000 to 2031 exists. At the same time, the proportion of women in the soldiers is just under 14 percent and is strongly criticized. The high dropout rate of 25 percent within the first six months is often attributed to boredom.

Högl does not see a solution to the personnel problem in the reintroduction of military service, but rather prefers a mandatory social year as an alternative. In order to cope with the logistical challenges, André Wüstner, chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, criticizes the current infrastructure and calls for the establishment of arms capacities. An action plan for the acceleration of infrastructure projects has already been developed, which could fail because of the bureaucracy and lack of digitization.

Overall, the Bundeswehr remains required to modernize its structures and to remedy personnel and material deficits in order to meet their duty to defend national defense and to react to the new security policy challenges.