Germany needs military service to deter Russia, top general insists

Germany requires a new form of military service to meet its growing defence needs, a leading general has said.

Harald Gante, a top lieutenant general in the German Army, told dpa in comments released on Sunday that the country’s armed forces – known collectively as the Bundeswehr – cannot rely solely on volunteers to fulfil their list of tasks.

“All the additional tasks that we have to deal with today in the area of homeland security, and national and alliance defence, will not work without significantly more personnel – and that can only be done with conscripts,” he said.

Germany must be ready to deter Russia, argued Gante.

“There should be no false illusions. If the Russian Federation has the possibility and the impression that it can restore its old Soviet empire with its spheres of influence, I am convinced they would try it,” he said.

“And there is exactly one way to stop them, and that is credible deterrence,” Gante added.

The Bundeswehr is eagerly awaiting the next German government’s decisions on whether to reintroduce military service, which was suspended in Germany in 2011.

This year, the army is expected to train 2,500 additional troops, but Gante argued that further investment is needed to bolster military infrastructure.

“The problem is not the trainers we have today, but the problem is the infrastructure,” he said.

“If I have no barracks, no beds, no company buildings in which to house the soldiers, then I cannot recruit them in the first place,” said the lieutenant general.