“What good is a tank if it can’t shoot?”

“We don’t have any armed forces that are capable of being defended,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently at a panel discussion at the turn of the century. How dramatic are the gaps in ammunition equipment?
All weapon systems – whether existing or now to be procured – are of little use if the ammunition is missing. What good is a tank if it can’t shoot? With a view to the central task of national and alliance defense, something urgently needs to be done about ammunition, otherwise all the money is useless. The previous extensive inactivity of the Ministry of Defense therefore has dramatic consequences. It is all the more important to change course as quickly as possible and make up for the deficits of the last twelve months.