“We have five to eight years. Within this period we must install a missile defense system. There is no alternative,” General Breuer told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe media group today.
“We believe that Russia will be capable of waging war against NATO countries within a period of five to eight years. Until then, we in Germany must also be able to repel such an attack,” he stressed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not hiding his intentions towards the West, General Breuer said, adding however that an attack on a Western country is currently the worst of the scenarios.
However it could happen “across the spectrum – from cyber attacks to drones and missiles”.
He rejected statements in Germany by officials calling for the conflict in Ukraine to be allowed to freeze. “Freezing a war requires that it be accepted by both sides. There isn’t a frozen conflict in the world that hasn’t been rekindled,” Breuer said. “The current military situation in Ukraine makes a freeze on the war seem neither possible nor desirable.”
The head of the German armed forces reacted with the remarks to comments made earlier this month in parliament by Rolf Mützenich, the head of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats parliamentary group.
“Isn’t it time to talk, not only about how to wage a war, but also to think about how to freeze a war and end it later?”, Mutzenich had said.
He later stated that the opposition used his statement piecemeal and expressed his unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within the pre-2014 borders.
The German government has created a special fund of 100 billion euros to upgrade the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces.
According to General Breuer, 80% of the funds have now been allocated and their allocation will be completed by the end of the year, but with possible delays in procurement.
“Most of the equipment has been ordered, but it has not yet reached the troops to the extent that I would like,” said Breuer, who considers the 100 billion euros to be “seed funding.”
“We need to stabilize defense spending. The defense budget must remain in the long term at 2% of economic output,” he stressed.
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