Bundeswehr Restructuring

[Albany Rifles]

Thanks

Totally missed them. In the early 1980s the 231st Gebirgsjaegers was one of our partnership units; the other was the 351st Panzergrenadiers. Got to go through mountain school in Bad Reichenhall. While at the end of 3 weeks they did give us the edelweis badge, I think they were just being nice...not sure we really earned it!

Thanks for the extra info...really helps.

Man, I remember when Deutsches Heer was 12 Divisions of badass! My brigade plugged into the 12th Panzer Division for a lot of the war plans.

[kato]

In the early 1980s the 231st Gebirgsjaegers was one of our partnership units; the other was the 351st Panzergrenadiers.

231st GebJg is the "heavy" mountain infantry equipped with Boxers nowadays, identical ToE as any of the regular Jäger units - basically the German equivalent of a Stryker infantry battalion, just with more armour. Will deploy to Mali in October.

351st PzGren was dissolved in 1993.

Man, I remember when Deutsches Heer was 12 Divisions of badass! My brigade plugged into the 12th Panzer Division for a lot of the war plans.

14 combat divisions and 55 brigades in late 1990 after integration of the National People's Army.

Sequential reduction was by 50% to come under 2+4 Treaty ceiling (by 1993), by another 30% to shift from conscript army to deployment focus (1997), another 50% when recruitment and finances were no longer sustainable (2003) and another 25% when conscription was "temporarily suspended" (2011).

[Albany Rifles]

I knew the 351st PzGren were early disbandment. The unit I was in (1st Infantry Division (FOrward)) was the first unit to disband...right after the Gulf War.

BITD I remember very few vehicles around for the 231st GebJg! Much has changed!

[kato]

They got unarmoured Bv-206D starting in 1989 (first tests in 1984), with most Gebirgsjäger units switching to armoured Bv-206S starting in 2006. I think 231st was switched over to Fuchs APCs at that time, with plans to equip them with Bv-206S when additional ones would be bought. That procurement plan was struck in 2011 and it was decided to keep the heavy outfit and switch them over to Boxer. There's currently a new programme for a replacement snow-capable armoured vehicle to replace Bv-206S for the other two battalions.

[kato]

Kato,

Any word on which way the Bundeswehr is leaning on the rifle replacement program? I'm assuming HK 416 or 433 are preferred choices over the Steyr RS-556, and SIG MCX due to local production considerations.

The HK 433 is supposedly a bit cheaper and more reliable, while the HK 416 would provide commonality with the French and the associated logistical advantages that entails.

Apparently Haenel has won the tender with its MK556 Gen2 offer - competition was down to Haenel against the HK433 since mid-2018. Ugly as hell, that thing, even uses some M4 components.
Posssible contract is for only 120,000 rifles though.

For scale of public interest in that, the website of Haenel is currently down from overload ;-)

Edit, PS: Now officially confirmed by the MoD.

[kato]

reestablish brigade-level artillery

Artillery Men had their powwow over the last 6-9 months and, uh, designed a bit more than that.




Basically, artillery wants to upgrade the four current battalions to artillery regiments that form a DIVARTY along the lines of 1980s US Army.

Operationally this DIVARTY Regiment would field three brigade artillery groups (BAG) and a divisional artillery group (DAG). Standby formation as a singular mixed regiment holding all 14 subordinate companies, the individual artillery groups would be formed for deployment. Not quite sure this has much chance of realization given how the analysis of KSK in early summer showed that regiments structured like that are a cesspool of personnel and logistics problems for lack of a middle command layer.

The DAG would get pretty much the standard formation that current artillery battalions have - two howitzer batteries, one GMLRS battery, one artillery recce battery (COBRA radar and Luna NG UAVs).

The BAGs would be deployed with brigades and support them with two howitzer batteries. BAGs supporting mechanized brigades would also bring one JFS platoon per combat battalion for these, infantry brigades already have these integral to the combat battalions.

The four battalions of each DIVARTY will each only have 12 howitzers. Since there are still not enough PzH2000 for that the DAG as well as those BAGs supporting infantry brigades will be equipped with a yet-to-be-procured wheeled 155mm SPH. The Bundeswehr has been testing KMWs RCH 155 since last year, basically an unmanned AGM module derived from PzH2000 on a Boxer chassis. A procurement as laid out in these plans would double the number of howitzers in Bundeswehr service.




Distribution to divisions. The three grey boxes are the three divisions with readiness-to-deploy of 30 days, 90 days and 180 days respectively. In those of lower readiness some companies are planned out to be cadred (ta) or inactive (na) in peacetime to be filled up with reservists.

Note that the above also suggests three brigades within the divisions will be "infantry brigades", with their BAG equipped with wheeled SPH.

The green box is something new on top. Corps Artillery Group, battalion sized, rocket artillery with four batteries. 30-day readiness. System for it yet to be procured or even planned out, the rumor mill says a mobile 300+ km guided missile system is on the wishlist, basically an ATACMS counterpart.

[kato]

The green box is something new on top. Corps Artillery Group, battalion sized, rocket artillery with four batteries. 30-day readiness. System for it yet to be procured or even planned out, the rumor mill says a mobile 300+ km guided missile system is on the wishlist, basically an ATACMS counterpart.

MBDA is positioning itself for this with JFS-M as a possible product ("Joint Fire Support - Missile").



It's not quite an ATACMS counterpart, more an Iskander-M counterpart. Range envelope below marked green by MBDA - that 500 km mark is noted as "a political hurdle, not a technological one" for the project:



Basically what they propose is a Taurus KEPD350 cruise missile as in service with the German Air Force, with a booster for surface launch. Possible integration into MARS 2 GMLRS launchers being investigated, launch from sea platforms theoretically possible. Warhead adaptable to customer, although TDW is pushing for a multi-effect warhead (read: same as Taurus). Main difference to Taurus would be in navigation software, mostly for loitering and swarm attack modes.

Possible use as a loitering UCAV with integral reconnaissance systems and AI-based automatic target recognition for man-in-the-loop attack on targets-of-opportunity is also mentioned, as well as possile co-development with UCAV systems for the Air Force (for FCAS) and other stuff that may have political complications (submunitions as well as attack on "heavily armoured targets in dense urban environments").

[Albany Rifles]

Kato, have you heard anything about this? Any insights?

https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/sachs...usitz-100.html

Bundeswehr wants to station a large group of troops in Upper Lusatia

by MDR AKTUELL & MDR SACHSEN
As of March 31, 2021, 5:33 p.m.



The Bundeswehr plans to station a troop unit of up to 1,000 men in Upper Lusatia. Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer signed a corresponding declaration of intent on Wednesday. After that, the decision to station it in 2023 should be made, then you want to commit to a municipality as the location, said the Saxon State Chancellery. Up to 1,000 members of the German armed forces are to start work at the new location by 2031.

Support with structural change

With the stationing of the armed forces unit one wants to support the structural change in the region, so Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The project was already the subject of the federal-state agreement to phase out coal at the beginning of 2020. "I am particularly pleased about the promise of fast and unbureaucratic support from all authorities in the Free State - for example with faster building permits," said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on the occasion of the signing of the letter of intent at the Boxberg power plant.

Task force is to coordinate settlement

Saxony wants to provide the Bundeswehr with a suitable area and support the staff in providing living space and social infrastructure near the barracks. In order to coordinate the settlement, a task force is to be set up under the direction of the Saxon Ministry for Regional Development.

In addition to the stationing of the troop unit, the Bundeswehr also wants to support structural change in other areas. According to the State Chancellery, more qualification offers are to take place in civilian vocational training and further education for the Bundeswehr in Lausitz. In addition, the Oberlausitz military training area is to be used more intensively.

The Federal Defense Minister has not yet been able to quantify the amount of Bundeswehr investments for this package. In the past five years, the Bundeswehr has invested 110 million euros in Saxony. A further 420 million euros are already planned by 2027.

Left member of the state parliament criticized the project

The plans of the Bundeswehr do not meet with approval everywhere. For example, Antonia Mertsching, member of the state parliament of the Left, rejected the stronger military presence in Upper Lusatia. This will replace the climate killer coal with the climate killer military. Because Bundeswehr exercises created new pollution of the air, soil and groundwater as well as increased noise pollution.
5 min


Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer says the Bundeswehr wants to get involved in coping with structural change in the Saxon lignite mining district of Upper Lusatia. One will also work with civil partners.

[kato]

Kato, have you heard anything about this? Any insights?

The Oberlausitz training grounds is a 168 km² former Soviet training area and Germany's fifth-largest (*). It's mostly used by armoured troops and helicopters, allowing live-fire shooting with heavy weapons up to reinforced company level (and by both anti-tank helicopters and door gunners) and having prepared areas for e.g. large-scale field camps, convoy training and limited urban combat training. Main focus is pre-deployment training, although e.g. Singapore also always does its biannual armor training there.

Planned stationing other than the yet-to-be-decided unit is apparently a R&D center for unmanned autonomous aircraft which would co-use the training grounds. The new unit to be stationed in the area - those 1,000 men - won't be decided until 2023. At that size it'll be just a battalion though.

The Bundeswehr currently nominally has eight bases in Saxony with a total of around 3,600 soldiers permanently stationed - other than Oberlausitz with about 220 soldiers these are a single depot, two training academies, various small territorial units (MPs, medical etc), the staff of 37th Mechanized Brigade and a single Mechanized Infantry Battalion of that Brigade.


(*) the only larger training areas are Grafenwöhr (US with co-use by Bundeswehr Artillery School), Bergen (NATO), Munster (Bw 9th Armored Brigade) and at least nominally Putlos (coastal training site for Bw artillery and air defense - 99% of its 480 km² are water though). Oberlausitz is about the same size as Munster, for scale.

[Albany Rifles]

Thanks Kato.

Makes sense on a couple of levels...good use for a training area and injects some financial assistance to the area.

From my own time in Germany I of course went to Graf & Hohenfels a lot. But our unit also used Wildflecken, Munsingen & Stetten training areas. Do you know the status of those? Munsingen was used by the French Army mostly as I remember.

[kato]

Makes sense on a couple of levels...good use for a training area and injects some financial assistance to the area.

My personal suspicion for the unit would be the corps artillery group btw. Given the planned stationing of the UAV R&D center and possible research synergies hinted at by MBDA it would make some sense to place them in conjunction - and the corps artillery group is the only one for which there is no given base yet (the four planned DIVARTY regiments are supposed to grow from the current four artillery battalions at their extant bases).

From my own time in Germany I of course went to Graf & Hohenfels a lot. But our unit also used Wildflecken, Munsingen & Stetten training areas. Do you know the status of those? Munsingen was used by the French Army mostly as I remember.

• Wildflecken is used for "non-specific-country" deployment training of the Joint Support Forces - i.e. for general combat training of rear echelon forces like supply troops. They've added some sites to it for that, such as for some urban combat training and setting up the old Hawk missile site there as a "military object" that troops can defend, as well as checkpoints and convoy routes. It's also used as the main training area for the United Nations Training Center located nearby at the Infantry School - e.g. Federal Police units sent to Afghanistan get their training here.
• Stetten/Heuberg is used by Special Forces (KSK in Calw is 50 km away) as well as engineers and civilian forces (EOD training center, primarily). It is also currently the largest singular Bundeswehr base in South Germany with around 3,000 soldiers - mostly the German components of the Franco-German Infantry Brigade.
• Münsingen was closed in 2006. Its 38 km long ring road has been rented by a holding through which companies like Daimler or Liebherr now use it for testing prototype trucks. The 19th century buildings of the camp are mostly used as an event location.
• The only other remaining training area in South Germany for the Bundeswehr is Hammelburg as a training area for the Infantry School located there.

[Albany Rifles]

Thanks Remember Hammelburg well. Went through 2 training cycles there...defending and attacking the MOUT site was awesome training. Also liked their Combat in Woods training site as well.

I went to Munsingen for my first field exercise as a brand new Lieutenant in November 1981...I had been in the country only 3 weeks!

We roadmarched from Goeppingen to Stetten in the summer of 1983...right in the middle of the Pershing II deployment and the resultant civil disruption. Driving through Tubingen we didn't get the warmest of greetings from the university students.

[kato]

defending and attacking the MOUT site was awesome training.

They're now building a much bigger, better version in East Germany for primary MOUT training - "Schnöggersburg" at the central Army Combat Training Center Altmark. It won't look as pretty as Bonnland in Hammelburg though.

Once complete sometime this year it will simulate a small city with 530 buildings where you'd have to walk a mile from one end to the other - with a large variety of buildings in various town quarters ("old town","new town","suburban","highrise","industrial","slum") as well as a subway tunnel, a small river, an airfield outside town etc. It's planned for urban warfare scenarios on battalion-vs-battalion basis involving up to 1500 soldiers.

There's only one other MOUT site of the same dimensions worldwide, Baladia City at UWTC in Israel in the Negev desert.

Official advertisement video for Schnöggersburg from 2018, when about half of it was complete and in use:

The Bonnland site at Hammelburg will continue to be used though. There's also some vague plans for expanding it.

[Officer of Engineers]

Good God, do you supply the instructors and OPFOR also? There must be a line up to get in there.

[kato]

Good God, do you supply the instructors and OPFOR also? There must be a line up to get in there.

Instructors and OPFOR are provided - GÜZ Altmark has somewhere around 1,000 soldiers and civilian employees (fluctuates a bit, with modernization of systems it's rather going down a bit).

OPFOR within that is a 680-man reinforced mixed battalion with one medium infantry, two mechanized and one tank company. It's a standing separate force not drawn from other units. When not used in military outfit they are available (trained) to roleplay as civilians too.

A company-sized unit at GÜZ tracks the fighting via full electronic surveillance for analysis - besides the shooting they track the positions of every soldier and their status on the battlefield. For presentation besides larger-scale auditorium buildings there are also truck-based mobile units available which can basically use a couple large-scale screens to present analysis to troops in the field.

Besides Schnöggersburg as a larger site the Altmark combat training center also includes a smaller village ("Hottendorf") with 50 buildings about 4 km away - which in itself is as big as MOUT training sites elsewhere, and can be used separately on its own - and about five small individualized building setups that emulate mostly Afghan and Kosovarian hamlets so that the landscape isn't really empty.
The Altmark site was originally a Nazi artillery range reused and massively expanded by the Soviets postwar, at some points used in exercises by up to 20,000 soldiers. The Bundeswehr took it over in the 90s and built a new base there, the training grounds are usable since about 2007 after it was cleared of UXO. Besides its main base it also has three troop camps spread around the 230 km² site.


As for a line, well yeah, it's continuously in use - typically in around 20 preset exercise timeframes per year of about 10-14 days each. Primary regular user besides German units is the Dutch military. Norwegian and Belgian troops also have used it before. Most of the time it's a single battalion training there, but the size also allows battlegroups - e.g. the EFP Battlegroups that we send to the Baltics do their certification courses there with around 1100-1400 men. About 25,000 soldiers train there per year now.

Technology-wise it's largely limited to militaries that use German systems though (it uses Rheinmetall AGDUS) - the US Army supposedly looked into it in 2015 when Schnöggersburg started building and found their simulator systems are not compatible.


P.S. Found the official finishing date - the remaining construction is planned to be handed over in June, with full operations across Schnöggersburg starting in July.