BERLIN - The German military (Bundeswehr) is struggling to meet its NATO commitments due to the uneven operational availability standards of its equipment. Over the past week German media has reported on this shortcoming with Germany's Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen admitting to the issues in an interview with one newspaper. Of particular focus has been the shortfall in available transport aircraft and helicopters, many of which are suffering from spare parts limitations or are beset with technical problems. But combat aircraft and armored vehicles are also experiencing issues as well.
Highlighting the problem was the deployment last week of a small German military contingent to northern Iraq to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters, which suffered from delays due to technical problems with multiple transport aircraft.
Defense Minister von der Leyen insists that much equipment is of excellent quality but has suffered from a lack of focus on maintenance, particularly in the production of replacement parts. Going forward the Defense Ministry hopes an infusion of additional money in the defense budget will allow maintenance depots and inspection teams to perform their duties more quickly.
For now, however, the Bundeswehr's airborne systems are below operational availability target figures made with NATO emergency missions in mind. Because of problems with the aging C-160D Transall airlift fleet the military is now looking at leasing additional transport aircraft while awaiting the arrival of new A400M Atlas transporters. Germany already leases Ukrainian Antonov An-124-100 transporters through the NATO Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) program.
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