How do you accumulate a small fortune? By starting with a big one. This old realisation means that you should be careful with a financial cornucopia. And the 2026 defence budget is such a cornucopia. To put it in context: the decision to suspend the constitutionally enshrined debt brake for defence and infrastructure will result in a defence budget of a completely new dimension: in 2026, a \"base amount\" of one percent of economic output will be allocated to defence in the federal budget, All further expenditure beyond this will not be counted towards the debt brake. According to calculations by budget experts, the \u20ac100 billion \"Bundeswehr special fund\" will expire in 2027. For the 2026 budget, which the Federal Cabinet adopted before the summer break and submitted to Parliament for approval, expenditure is planned in the regular section 14 (defence) and the remainder of the special fund. Both documents must be placed side by side.<\/p>\n
The 2026 federal budget is the first draft budget to bear the original signature of the Christian Democrat-Social Democrat coalition. It reflects dramatic increases in the defence force. The explanatory notes to the \"Government Draft Federal Budget 2026 and Federal Financial Plan 2025 to 2029\" state: \"The expenditure earmarked for the defence budget in the government draft for the 2026 budget will increase by around \u20ac29.4 billion to around \u20ac82.7 billion compared to the financial plan. Funds totalling \u20ac100 billion have been made available through the Bundeswehr special fund, of which around \u20ac25.5 billion is earmarked for 2026.\" In the current financial plan, defence spending is set to rise to \u20ac152.8 billion in 2029.<\/p>\n
In Chapter 1405 (Military Procurement) Title 554 12 (Procurement of ships, operational watercraft, boats, floating and other naval equipment), commitment appropriations\/VE (authorisation for long-term contractual commitments) of around \u20ac 36.6 billion are shown for 2026 until 2041 (2027: around \u20ac 1.9 billion). This does not affect individually budgeted projects (Epl. 14 and special assets) such as F 126, U 212CD or naval fuel suppliers. An F 127 project with an estimated VE of \u20ac 10 billion could easily be transferred to a new project title.<\/p>\n
Truly a cornucopia that also invites inefficiency and waste. In this context, we remember an experienced budget expert in the parliamentary arena: don't look at the amount that is made available at the beginning of the year, but at what is not spent at the end of the year! The reasons for the lack of outflow of budget funds are complex: delivery bottlenecks, lack of orders and lack of personnel (contract lawyers, acceptance experts). We cannot recognise an ordering hand! The new, third, State Secretary in the BMVg comes from the Federal Chancellery under Olaf Scholz and is to be responsible for armaments, innovation and cyber. However, he still has to acquire the patent for \"procurement projects on a long journey\".<\/p>\n
The Navy has mapped out a \"Course 2025\" and is facing up to the public debate. We are curious to see how the parliamentary committees for defence and budget will deal with the current irritating developments in the F 126 project and possible consequences for F 127, and what consequences they will demand. The topic needs a serious discourse; it must not be left to agitated members of the \"commentariat\" on social media.<\/p>\n
However, this requires reliable information about current NATO demands (on Germany) - without ignoring the necessary degree of confidentiality within the Alliance. What does the Alliance expect from Germany? What specific contribution should the German Navy make? This is where \"butter must be put on the fish\"! At the moment, there is only - more or less reliable - conjecture. Such a mixed situation does not do justice to the challenges and the financial resources available. Siren calls to satisfy procurement demands politically cheaply and generously \"across the board\" can be heard. The warning should therefore be repeated here: ... and do not lead us into temptation!<\/p>\n
Heinz Schulte is a member of the Executive Board of the German Maritime Institute.<\/p>\n
Heinz Schulte<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wie h\u00e4uft man ein kleines Verm\u00f6gen an? Indem man mit einem gro\u00dfen beginnt. Diese alte Erkenntnis will sagen, dass man sorgsam mit einem finanziellen F\u00fcllhorn umgehen sollte. Und der Verteidigungsetat 2026 ist ein solches F\u00fcllhorn. Zur Einordnung: Mit der Entscheidung, die grundgesetzlich verankerte Schuldenbremse f\u00fcr Verteidigung und Infrastruktur auszusetzen, ergibt sich ein Wehretat in v\u00f6llig […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,486,32],"tags":[2654,193,2098,4825,78,340,257,2802,10495],"class_list":["post-48302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sicherheitspolitik","category-headlines","category-magazin","tag-bundeshaushalt","tag-bundeswehr","tag-f126","tag-f127","tag-marine","tag-nato","tag-ruestung","tag-sondervermoegen","tag-verteidigungsetat-2026"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48926,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48302\/revisions\/48926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}