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LUFTWAFFE TO LOSE TWO WINGS

With the publication of Rudolf Scharping's plans for the future, "The German Armed Forces of the future - detailed planning and deployment" at the end of January, the period of rumours and speculation is finally over. The plans envisage the closure of 39 bases, while at another 40 bases the scope of operations is to be significantly reduced. The number of small stations is to be reduced from 166 to 74.

In particular, Luftwaffe planning structure 5 will also mean serious changes for the Luftwaffe. Thus the size as a whole of flying units will be cut by one-quarter, of air defence units by one-third and of radar operation units and logistics units by one-half. The number of servicemen will then come to 51,850.

Air Vice Marshall Rolf H. Portz explained the effects in a routine order to his men. According to this the command structure is to be streamlined, and administrative and operational tasks are to be clearly separated. The new command organisation below the German Air Force operations staff in the Ministry of Defence is therefore divided into a command section (Air Force Command, LwFüKdo) and an administrative section (General Air Force Office). The previous Air Support Command is to be disbanded. Most of its work will be taken over by the newly created Air Force Materiel Command which will be subordinate to the General Air Force Office. Air Force Command will be responsible for four Air Divisions plus Air Transport Command. At the tactical level, the new Air Operations Command in Kalkar will be subordinate to the LwFüKdo. Today's Air Force Tactical Commands North and South will be disbanded.

The proposed changes to the individual flying units, according to Potz, are as follows:

Fighter Wings 71, 73 and 74 will convert to the Eurofighter EF 2000 between 2002 and 2007 and 2010 to 2012.

Fighter Wing 72 (Westphalia) in Rheine/Hopsten will cease to be an operational unit, but continue up to 2006 as Flying Training Group F-4F with reduced personnel and equipment.

Fighter Bomber Wings 31 and 33 will be fitted with the EF 2000 between 2007 and 2010 and 2012 to 2015, respectively.

Fighter Bomber Wing 34 will be decommissioned by 2003. Some of the personnel and equipment will be distributed among the remaining Tornado units to reinforce them.

Reconnaissance Wing 51 and Fighter Bomber Wing 32 will remain unchanged and will continued to fly the Tornado even after 2015.

Following entry into service of the NH-90 (planned between 2006 and 2013) and the Airbus A400M/FTA (planned between 2008 and 2016) there will be two FTS transport wings in Landsberg and Hohn and one wing equipped with the NH-90 in Holzdorf

One C-160 Transall flying training group will remain in Wunstorf as long as there continues to be a requirement for training on this type.

Drastic cuts are also planned for the air defence units. The six air defence wings are to be reduced to four, with Air Defence Wing 3 in Oldenburg and 6 in Lenggries to be disbanded. Air Defence Wing 5's headquarters will be transferred to Manching.

The Hawk (six) and Roland (three) air defence groups will be disbanded in order to create mixed units each with two Hawk and Roland squadrons at the Stadum, Sanitz/Camin, Buirbach/Schöneck and Leipheim bases.

There will be 5 operational squadrons equipped with the Patriot weapon system. 1 Air Defence Group 21 (Ennigerloh), 6 Air Defence Group 22 (Kaufbeuren), 6 Air Defence Group 23 (Roth), 6 Air Defence Group 24 (Oldenburg), 6 Air Defence Group 25 (Grossenkneten) and 6 Air Defence Group 26 (Husum) will be disbanded.

Naturally this will not leave the radar operation and logistics units untouched. It is planned to reduce these to four fixed-location Control and Reporting Centres (CRCs) and to set up two mobile CRCs.

The present radar operations will be restructured into four tactical command units (TCU): TCU 1 in Messstetten, TCU 2 in Erndtebrück, TCU 3 in Schönwalde and TCU 4 in Aurich.

With regard to facilities security, most of the ground defence squadrons will be disbanded and concentrated in the security battalion and in three unit-specific groups.

Air Force Logistics Regiments 1 (Erding) and 2 (Diepholz) will be transformed into Air Force Maintenance Regiments 1 and 2. Air Force Logistics Regiment 3 in Landsberg will be transformed into the Weapon System Support Centre.

According to Portz, all the changes are intended to adapt the Luftwaffe to the altered mission and capability profile of the German Armed Forces and hence to facilitate active involvement in international conflict prevention and crisis management. But not all that glitters is golden. Following initial criticism of the military facility closures, the opinion is increasingly being heard that the compromise between social aspects and military requirements has impaired the capability of the German Armed Forces. Moreover, unpleasant gaps in budgetary funding are looming. Thus the Luftwaffe's maintenance budget for the year 2001 is said to have already been used up. It would appear that the Defence Minister needs to act quickly.

From page 68 of FLUG REVUE 4/2001