{"id":318633,"date":"2025-11-17T07:50:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318633"},"modified":"2025-11-19T08:50:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:50:27","slug":"germany-unveils-plans-to-create-europes-strongest-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318633","title":{"rendered":"Germany Unveils Plans To Create Europe\u2019s Strongest Army"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brendan Cole \u2013 NEWSWEEK Nov 14, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

German lawmakers\u00a0have\u00a0unveiled a new military service plan to boost troop numbers as Berlin seeks to create Europe’s strongest conventional army.<\/p>\n

The country’s coalition government has proposed a plan that mandates all 18-year-old men to fill out a questionnaire on their suitability to serve.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u00a0had pledged<\/a> in May to turn his country’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, into the strongest conventional army in Europe.<\/p>\n

Newsweek <\/em>has contacted the\u00a0Bundeswehr\u00a0for further comment.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/h2>\n

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has raised the alarm<\/a> among\u00a0Germany and its European partners about the risks the Kremlin poses to the Continent.<\/p>\n

Leaders and analysts\u00a0have warned\u00a0that\u00a0Moscow could\u00a0attack\u00a0another country\u00a0by the end of the decade, and\u00a0Germany’s\u00a0push to boost its armed forces could\u00a0reshape\u00a0Europe’s traditional military-political dynamics.<\/p>\n

What To Know<\/h2>\n

According to the German government’s new military service plan, beginning next year, all\u00a018-year-old men\u00a0must\u00a0answer questions about whether they can serve.\u00a0From 2027,\u00a0they would have to\u00a0undergo medical screening\u00a0to assess their fitness.<\/p>\n

The questionnaire\u00a0would be mandatory for men and voluntary for women,\u00a0and they would be\u00a0taken into account\u00a0if a war broke out.<\/p>\n

The governing parties have said there will be no return to compulsory military service, and that enlistment would be voluntary,\u00a0but there are concerns\u00a0that\u00a0this could change.<\/p>\n

The Bundeswehr has about 182,000 troops, but under the plans,\u00a0the government predicts the figure could rise to 260,000 over the next 10 years, backed by about 200,000 reservists.<\/p>\n

By 2029, Germany is\u00a0expected to spend<\/a>\u00a0153 billion euros\u00a0($178\u00a0billion)\u00a0a year on defense, or 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product\u2014the most since reunification.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the plan by the end of the year. Armin Papperger, the head of Germany’s biggest defense firm, Rheinmetall, told the BBC that by the end of the decade, the country could achieve its goal to create the strongest army in Europe.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0time frame\u00a0has been the focus of European policymakers<\/a>\u00a0concerned about the threat posed by Russia, amid its aggression in\u00a0Ukraine, record military spending\u00a0and accusations it is engaging in hybrid warfare toward NATO countries.<\/p>\n

General Carsten Breuer,\u00a0Germany’s\u00a0defense\u00a0chief, warned earlier this year\u00a0that NATO had to prepare for a possible Russian attack within four years,\u00a0a sentiment\u00a0reiterated by other European leaders, including Ukrainian President\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky this week.<\/p>\n

Merz outlined Germany’s military ambitions\u00a0in May. Politico reported that it had seen internal procurement papers of plans for\u00a083 billion euros in defense contracts\u2014including tanks, frigates, drones,\u00a0satellites\u00a0and radar systems\u2014to go before lawmakers before the end of\u00a0next year.<\/p>\n

What People Are Saying<\/h2>\n

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, according to German media:\u00a0<\/strong>“Other European countries, especially Nordic ones, have shown that the principle of voluntary service combined with attractiveness works\u2014and I expect it to be the same here.”<\/p>\n

Christoph Schmid, a German Social Democratic lawmaker,\u00a0said, per Politico:<\/strong>\u00a0“The expectation is that Germany will finally step up and match its economic weight with defense power.”<\/p>\n

What\u00a0Happens\u00a0Next<\/h2>\n

The draft bill\u00a0is set to go before the German\u00a0parliament\u00a0in\u00a0December, and it could be passed by the end of the year\u2014although\u00a0it is likely to face opposition from those on the political left\u00a0who view it as a\u00a0possible lurch\u00a0toward mandatory\u00a0military\u00a0service.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has proposed plans to transform the German army into Europe\u2019s most powerful, ostensibly to deal with a threat posed by Russia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":289062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318634,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318633\/revisions\/318634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/289062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}