ALWAGHT- Since 2022, Germany has inked €111 billion ($130 billion) in arms deals, but the Defense Ministry cannot state how many have been fully delivered or operationalized, Der Spiegel reports.
In February 2022, then Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared a "Zeitenwende" (turning point) and unveiled a €100 billion plan to modernize Germany's armed forces by 2028. Berlin has also been a key backer of Kyiv, providing €44 billion ($52 billion) in military and financial aid to Ukraine. Der Spiegel reported on Sunday, citing Defense Ministry data, that 47,000 procurement contracts have been signed since Scholz's declaration, in response to an inquiry by Dietmar Bartsch of The Left party.
The Defense Ministry declined to say how many contracts had been completed or how much equipment had been delivered as of March 1, 2026, stating that an automated centralized evaluation was not possible and that manual collection would be too costly and time-consuming. Bartsch criticized the response, noting that over 47,000 arms contracts worth €111 billion in four years amounts to over 30 contracts per day. He argued that the ministry's inability to quantify completed projects is a warning sign, increasing the risk of wasted taxpayer money on delayed or unsuitable projects.
Germany has been investing heavily in its military despite a deteriorating economy, with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche cutting the growth forecast to just 0.5%. Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of the "danger of EU militarization," happening "very fast and frenetically," with the US actively promoting these processes to shift security responsibility onto Europeans. Moscow has dismissed Western claims of Russian aggression, arguing that EU countries use the perceived "Russian threat" to justify rapid military spending while distracting from domestic problems.
