Construction projects for infrastructure sites supporting the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) are to be accelerated through a joint effort by the federal and state governments.
The German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, has implemented a new initiative: the ‘Infrastructure Turnaround Action Plan,’ to secure the readiness of the Bundeswehr in the tentative security climate.
This new plan stipulates that the federal and state governments should rethink together and act flexibly when building infrastructure for troops.
In his statement, Pistorius argued that “the time factor is the decisive factor when it comes to infrastructure.”
Though, this is not Germany’s first instance of infrastructure preparedness. On the continental level, Germany, alongside the Netherlands and Poland, established a military transport corridor across their respective territories for the smooth deployment of Nato and allied troops eastward, where Ukraine is fighting an attritional war against invading Russian forces and where the Baltic nations are expected to play a greater role in European defence.
Pistorius’ infrastructure policy comes just after Baltic nations, particularly Lithuania, are investing in their own infrastructure, which it intends to accommodate its new US platforms and rotational troops from Germany and other Nato partners.
The investments in materials and equipment from the increased defence budget and the Bundeswehr’s special assets also required significant investments in infrastructure for procurements such as the new F-35A fighter aircraft, CH-57F Block II Chinook heavy transport helicopters and the Arrow air defence system. The Bundeswehr will need new, very special buildings, so-called special infrastructure.
Most significantly, the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) says “it is still about ammunition depots, a total of 16 are to be upgraded nationwide.”
In addition, accommodation buildings must be renovated or newly built. This all falls under the term infrastructure. The project needs that the MoD has identified for this, is estimated at over €24bn $26bn in the coming years – for a total of 7,000 construction projects.
