BERLIN – German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday increased the size of the military to the current target of 203,000 troops as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance seeks to expand its power following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He said there is a possibility that the number of employees could increase from 230,000 to 230,000.
The German Wehrmacht (Bundeswehr) currently has about 180,000 military personnel, but it has struggled for years to recruit personnel and is about 20,000 short of its current goal.
“We are planning to increase the number of uniformed personnel to 203,000, and we will probably move towards 230,000 with NATO capacity targets,” Pistorius told parliament in Berlin.
NATO has set tougher new targets for the number of allied forces and weapons in 2025, reflecting what the alliance sees as a worsening security situation since Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine. We plan to agree.
Reuters previously reported that NATO planners believe the alliance needs an additional 35 to 50 brigades to withstand a Russian attack. A brigade consists of 3,000 to 7,000 troops, which means 105,000 to 350,000 soldiers.
Under this scenario, Germany, which typically provides about 10% of NATO’s capacity, would require three to five brigades, or 20,000 to 30,000 additional combat troops. This would effectively be one more division on top of the three divisions Berlin is currently developing.
The Defense Ministry in Berlin has declined to comment on the classified plans.
Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s government increased military spending after the Russian invasion, aligning defense spending with NATO targets for the first time in decades. But questions remain about how to sustain such spending.
Last month, Scholz’s three-party coalition government collapsed over a budget dispute, triggering a snap election in February.
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