The Bundeswehr (German army) is currently only 75 percent equipped with tanks and other heavy weapons, with equipment shared between different units as and when they need it under a so-called “Dynamic availability management” system.

A Defence Ministry spokesman admitted this week that the process was “in practice just as bad as it sounds” after it led last week to soldiers using broom handles as mock machine guns during a Nato exercise….

“If we want to present a credible allied defence for Europe, the troops have to be fully equipped,” defence committee chairman Hans-Peter Bartels said.

“A tank battalion without tanks is not a tank battalion.”

Bartels suggested that the country should aim to field around 300 battle tanks in future – something that could be achieved at little cost, as many of the vehicles are still in storage.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) defence spokesman Hennig Otte told Reuters that “given the background of the security situation”, Germany would have to aim for “full equipment with heavy weapons” – and the financial means to achieve it.

Image: Chairman of the Bundestag defense committee Hans-Peter Bartels, Dec. 31, 2012 (photo: SPD)