new spending pledge<\/a> of 5 percent of gross domestic product split into two tiers: 3.5 percent for traditional military spending and another 1.5 percent for broader strategic needs like infrastructure, civil preparedness and counter-hybrid threats. \u201cIt would encompass investments to promote defense and threat-free capacity,\u201d Schulz said.<\/p>\nBut Schulz made it clear that percentages alone don\u2019t win wars. NATO has already spelled out its new capability targets \u2014 top-secret objectives that member countries need to acquire and maintain to fulfill NATO’s operational plans \u2014 and that will drive defense spending decisions in national capitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur key focus is on implementing the capability targets and improving the warfighting readiness of the Bundeswehr,\u201d he said. The new targets are \u201cmuch more demanding\u201d than the earlier version agreed in 2021, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
To meet those targets, Berlin is rethinking its military manpower model. <\/p>\n
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has set a goal of recruiting up to 60,000 additional active troops, raising the Bundeswehr\u2019s size to around 260,000. Under the proposed framework \u2014 modeled partly on Sweden\u2019s system \u2014 18-year-old men would complete a survey to gauge readiness and willingness to serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear,\u201d Schulz said during the briefing, \u201cthis will not be the return of the old mandatory conscription for the time being,\u201d though he acknowledged growing domestic debate around the topic. <\/p>\n
It is unclear what happens if troop numbers fall short. German conservative MP Thomas Erndl, a defense policy expert, wants to take the voluntary model a step further, telling POLITICO<\/a> recently that \u201ccompulsory elements will have to be introduced\u201d if the Bundeswehr’s personnel needs cannot be met.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The real action during the summit will be on defense budgets. Secretary-General Mark Rutte has already telegraphed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7668,3457,473,7057,32,2000,7704,299,1824,2992,23910,21463,2821,32949,8041,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-205761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-boris-pistorius","9":"tag-cybersecurity","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-defense-budgets","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-eu-us-military-ties","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-germany","17":"tag-mark-rutte","18":"tag-military-mobility","19":"tag-military-recruitment","20":"tag-nato","21":"tag-nato-summit","22":"tag-nuclear-weapons","23":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114728483121195542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}