The German Armed Forces’ digital radio project is increasingly becoming a symbol of German defence bureaucracy in a state of emergency. For years, the army has been failing to install functional digital radio equipment in its vehicles – a project that should have been standard long ago. Instead of progress, there are new delays, technical glitches and consultancy contracts worth millions.
While soldiers continue to have to use outdated analogue technology, Capgemini, PwC and Co. are now supposed to save the day for just under 160 million euros. Daily rates of over 1,200 euros per person – a price that smacks of desperation, not efficiency.
The reality: the installation of the radios is dragging on and on. In some cases, a single conversion takes 400 working hours – per vehicle. At the same time, the software, developed by a Rheinmetall subsidiary, among others, is struggling with its own problems. The fact that NATO’s ‘Division 2025’ will now probably not be fully operational until 2027 comes as no surprise to anyone.
Instead of eliminating the structural chaos, money continues to be pumped into circles of consultants who have long since become part of the problem. When the state needs millions in external aid for its own modernisation, something is fundamentally wrong.
The Bundeswehr’s digital radio system is thus symbolic of a system that prefers to write concepts rather than implement solutions. And while mixed operation and interim solutions are still being discussed in Berlin, one thing remains the same at the front: radio silence.
