After years of ridiculing and sneering at U.S. President Donald Trump for suggesting that European nations should boost their defense spending, counties like Britain and Germany are scrambling to revamp their armed forces in the face of growing military threats from China and Russia.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the UK’s government “would spend an extra $6 billion on its nuclear-armed submarine fleet and replenishing munitions stockpiles to bolster support for Ukraine and deter an increasingly assertive China.”
The British announcement came the same day as Germany fired the head of its armed forces amid reports that the much-publicized revamping of the German military was not going as planned.
German state-run DW TV reported Wednesday that Bundeswehr chief General Eberhard Zorn “will be sent into early retirement on Thursday.” The army chief “had come under fire for his flawed analysis of Russian and Ukrainian military capabilities,” the broadcaster added.
The Sky News TV channel reported the UK defense budget boost:
The UK will spend about an extra £5bn on its military and aim to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP as part of an updated strategy to counter intensifying threats from China and Russia.The revised defence, security and foreign policy review will describe the Chinese Communist Party as an “epoch-defining challenge” in a toughening of language.The top priority will be to tackle the “fundamental risk” to European security posed by Moscow and to deny President Vladimir Putin from benefitting from his invasion of Ukraine.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaking before his updated review is published on Monday, said the new money for defence over the next two years would replenish and grow ammunition stockpiles and top-up funding for the nuclear deterrent.
While the UK hopes to revive its military capabilities by throwing in more money, things in Germany are much worse.
Germany’s parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, overseeing Bundeswehr’s modernization, admitted that more than $100 billion of the emergency fund — released by the parliament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — wouldn’t be enough to fix the country’s ailing military. The Bundeswehr needs at least $32o billion to get back on its feet, armed forces commissioner Eva Högl disclosed Wednesday.
She also lamented that not enough German women were stepping up to join the country’s woke military.
DW TV reported the dire state of the German military:
Eva Högl, commissioner for Germany’s armed forces, said on Wednesday that Berlin was working too slowly to build up the Bundeswehr.
Högl, whose role is to ensure parliamentary control of the armed forces, was making her report in light of the “tuning point” announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Scholz said an additional €100 billion ($107 billion) would be made available to bring the Bundeswehr up to scratch.
Högl said that while the military was being asked to do more, its stock of clothing, ammunition, and spare parts was running low.
“The procurement system is too sluggish,” Högl said. “The first projects are on the way, but in 2022 our soldiers still haven’t received a single cent from special funds,” she said. (…)The commissioner called for additional funding to be earmarked for the armed forces, beyond the €100 billion ($107 billion) already supplied as part of a one-off fund.”The 100 billion euros won’t be enough in order to compensate for all the deficiencies, military experts estimate that a total sum of 300 billion euros is necessary,” she said.Högl cast doubt over whether Germany’s armed forces will be able to achieve its goal of reaching 203,000 soldiers by 2031.The commissioner said that there was an 11% drop in enlistment in 2022 compared to the previous year, giving a total force of 183,965 soldiers.Högl said that relatively few women enlist in the armed forces, with only a little over 13% of the Bundeswehr being made up of female personnel, even when including the medical corps.The commissioner’s appeal joins a chorus of lawmakers and officials who have urged for faster supplies and funding for the military.
Days after securing a historic third term from the Communist Party’s hand-picked parliament, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to build a ‘Great Wall of Steel’ around Communist China.
While it’s laudable to defend national sovereignty — a concept abandoned by the ruling globalist elite in the West, Beijing’s militarized steel wall might include the island nation of Taiwan and a large part of the South China Sea, a move that will encroach on the territories of several Asian neighbors.
The Daily Mail (UK) reported Xi’s remark:
President Xi Jinping has vowed to make China an even mightier power in a thinly-veiled threat to the West, saying its military will become a ‘Great Wall of Steel’ during his unprecedented third term in power.Speaking at the National People’s Congress, the Chinese premier also emphasised the need to step up China’s ability to safeguard national security and manage public security. (…)He said that China must counter the interference of external forces and oppose pro-independence activities in the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
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