The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag approved on the previous Wednesday a total of four 25-million-euro proposals for major procurement projects of the Bundeswehr. The priorities are the digitalization of the armed forces, protected combat vehicles, and logistics. Two procurement projects serve the digitalization of the land forces and are closely linked to the armaments project Digitalization of Land-Based Operations (D-LBO).
With the seventh amendment to the contract, according to a statement by the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg), the delivery quantities and cadence of the leadership radio devices under the existing contract are increased. Nearly 32,000 additional leadership radios in various configurations are planned. The amendment agreement is also to include additional handheld radios for digital mixed operation.
Budget Committee approves more Schakal infantry fighting vehicles
Alongside this contract, the Budget Committee also approved the following three 25-million-euro proposals:
- Schakal infantry fighting vehicle: procurement (option activation) for manufacture and delivery of additional systems under the Boxer series production contract
- Container-based workshop equipment: framework agreement on the manufacture and delivery of container-based workshop equipment for mobile maintenance
- Input devices: procurement of PIN pads specifically designed for military use within the framework of D-LBO.
In D-LBO, currently more than 10,000 vehicles of the so-called Division 2025 are being equipped with state-of-the-art digital radio technology. The leadership radio system ensures secure information exchange, even in a disturbed electromagnetic environment. It also enables continuous encrypted communication. For the growth of the Bundeswehr, in the coming years the fleets of combat vehicles and also of logistics will grow strongly, with some types in the four-digit range.
A Turning Point for Mixed Operation under D-LBO
These new platforms must all be integrated into the new digital radio and command system, and in addition also be equipped with new digital handheld radios for mixed operation. The mixed operation plays a prominent role for outfitting the land forces with D-LBO, because retrofitting more than ten thousand platforms in one go is not feasible. There are vehicles already retrofitted, vehicles whose retrofit is still to follow, and vehicles that will not be retrofitted any longer, for example due to small production runs or imminent end of use.
The land forces must, however, be able to operate in a networked, command-capable, and mission-ready state and be able to radio and exchange data in a networked fashion. To this end, industry and the Bundeswehr have jointly developed various solutions with digital handheld radios.
With the amendment contract, additional handheld radios are being procured for the digital mixed operation, which after use in mixed operation and after equipping the vehicles with the overall D-LBO system, will continue to be used as additional handheld radios for the expanding troop.
The amendment contract has a planned volume of around 2.4 billion euros, with around two billion euros allocated to equipping new platforms. Digital and protected leadership capability are essential for superiority in combat and interoperability within the alliance. Therefore we must also equip the growing troop and new land systems according to the D-LBO standard. These investments thus reflect the future personnel and material growth of the armed forces and are explicitly not additional costs for the armaments program, which is estimated to total around 11.5 billion euros.
