New coalition agreement fulfils many of the recently articulated expectations of the Federal Association of the German Security and Defence Industry (BDSV)
With its "BDSV 10", the BDSV had formulated clearly defined requirements in recent months for a further increase in industrial capacities in favour of rapid equipping of the Bundeswehr. The new coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD fulfils many of these expectations.
BDSV Managing Director Dr Hans Christoph Atzpodien commented: "The preamble to the agreement already sets the right tone with the words: 'Germany is facing historic challenges. ... Strength is the prerequisite for peace. That's why we want to be able to defend ourselves so that we don't have to defend ourselves. In the section 'Defence policy' will be the promise of the future Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz ('...whatever it takes') with the statement that the level of defence spending will in future be based on the jointly agreed NATO capability goals. The commitment 'on European defence cooperation' in the sense of 'Simplification, standardisation and scale' is in line with our expectation that the requirements of the industry must be aggregated in the best possible way in order to enable a rapid and efficient further increase in production capacity.
The commitment to creating a multi-year investment plan to ensure long-term planning capability fulfils a key BDSV expectation. The same applies to the commitment to pass a planning and acceleration law for the Bundeswehr in the first six months of the government's term of office. The sentence 'The planning and procurement system is being reformed' meets the expectations of our members. The BDSV also recognises the coalition partners' intention to work with stockpiling contracts and purchase guarantees in particularly critical areas such as ammunition. It was also one of our points to ensure the availability of key resources - e.g. explosives - on the part of the state.
We also welcome the targeted promotion of future technologies, whereby the list mentioned in the coalition agreement 'Satellite systems, AI, unmanned (including combat-capable) systems, electronic warfare, cyber, software-defined defence and cloud applications as well as hypersonic systems' corresponds to the priorities listed in the EU white paper. When it comes to strengthening the competitiveness of the German and European security and defence industry, mention is made - again in line with our points - of medium-sized defence technology companies as well as long-term plannable contracts, simplified access to capital and more resilient supply chains.
The statement 'We will utilise offset options for defence purchases outside of EU procurement law' also fulfils a long-held expectation of our industry. Finally, the coalition agreement once again strikes the right note with the paragraph on arms exports: 'We are aligning our arms exports more closely with the interests of foreign, economic and security policy. We want a strategically oriented arms export policy that provides reliability for the German security and defence industry, its foreign partners and its customers. We are expanding support for arms exports via government-to-government agreements.
All in all, these are passages in which our industry, with the wishes and expectations it has expressed to politicians, has so far been very well reflected. For the output that we as an industry want to deliver on time and in line with requirements, it now depends above all on the rapid and resolute fulfilment of these commitments."
Text: Peter Scheben, Head of Policy & Communication / Export Control
English 
German
0 Kommentare