German Defence Ministry plans to wage international drone warfare
Germany’s ruling elite is responding to the mounting
tensions between the major powers triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic by
intensifying its drive to war. After the Defence Ministry announced two weeks
ago the purchasing of 138 fighter jets, including 30 nuclear-capable bombers,
drones armed with missiles are now to be obtained. This was confirmed last
Monday in a choreographed panel discussion involving government representatives,
military officials, opposition politicians, and theologians held on the
premises of the Defence Ministry.
In Afghanistan and Mali, where the German army defends the
pro-imperialist puppet regimes against resistance from the local populations,
three reconnaissance drones have been operating since 2010 and 2016
respectively. In 2021, they will be replaced by the Israeli-built “Heron TP”
model, which will be equipped with missiles.
The establishment of Germany’s own armada of armed drones
has been a goal of the grand coalition for years and was part of the
months-long talks on forming the government in 2018.
In its coalition agreement, the Christian Democrats (CDU),
Christian Social Union (CSU), and Social Democrats (SPD) stated that they want
to “continue to develop the euro-drone within the framework of the European
defence union.” The Israeli Heron armed drone was seen as a “transitional
solution,” the “arming” of which would be decided “by parliament following a
careful consideration of international law, constitutionality, and ethics.” The
panel held last Monday in the Defence Ministry was aimed at pushing forward
with this goal.
State secretary for defence Peter Tauber (CDU), who opened
the panel, stated that future drone attacks from the air would “provide our
troops with additional protection.” This is the Defence Ministry’s well-known
propaganda. The reality is that there is hardly another weapon so strongly
associated with the neocolonial wars of the 21st century and the anonymized
murder of men, women, and children than drones.
In his appeal, General Inspector of the Armed Forces
Eberhard Zorn left no doubt about the fact that Germany, like its imperialist
rivals, would deploy armed drones to suppress entire populations of far-off
regions and to carry out targeted killings of alleged opponents. Zorn
explicitly referred to the army’s interventions in Afghanistan and Mali. The
German armed forces do not confront soldiers there, he said, adding, “These are
interventions where we do not face a state actor... In Afghanistan, many
ambushes were carried out from residential areas where women and children are
also located.”
Although “artillery” or “bombings by aircraft” are capable
of killing opponents from a distance, these conditions require a “more precise
method of combat.”
“The small directed bombs we use on our aircraft weigh 125
kg. But the bombs are generally larger. Although they are precision-guided,
their explosive power is so strong that not only the target is destroyed, but
damage is also caused in a radius of up to several hundred metres. The same
goes for artillery, which is a wide-ranging weapon per se,” Zorn explained.
The precision-guided nature of these weapons is thus “one of
the advantages from a military point of view.” In contrast to aircraft and
missile launchers, they can be used “almost without a sound.”
Leading representatives from the government and opposition
parties strongly advocated in the following panel discussion for the purchasing
of the new weapon—including several members of the Parliamentary Defence
Committee.
“We think it is an elementary matter of modern defence to
have armed drones,” stated Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (Free Democrats, FDP).
“We need this drone, and I hope and am sure that it will come–even if we talk
here for a while.” Sooner or later, all participants have to “get down to
business.” She could say, “on behalf of the Free Democrats, we want this drone,
armed, of course.”
SPD defence policy expert and chairman of the Berlin state
association of the People’s Federation of Military Cemetery Providers Fritz
Felgentreu stated, “We’re at a point where we need to be constructive. If it is
true what the General Inspector explained...then one must conclude that the
support from an armed drone is better than conventional aircraft.”
The SPD Parliamentary Armed Forces Commissioner, Hans-Peter
Bartels, spoke out strongly in favour of armed drones ahead of the meeting. “An
armed reconnaissance drone...for a German patrol in battle” is “worthwhile.” In
an emergency, this would be better than waiting on the arrival of fighter
helicopters or jets.
The representatives of the Left Party and Greens also made
clear that they support the German army’s foreign military interventions. They
opposed the government’s plans merely due to tactical considerations. The
defence policy spokesperson for the Greens, Katja Keul, declared armed drones
to be a “long-term security policy risk” for “the armed forces,” because they
could fall into the hands of the enemy.
The Left Party parliamentary group’s spokesperson on defence
policy, Tobias Pflüger, said that he “rejects the form of going into a mission
with armed drones.” In other words, the Left Party agrees in principle with
German imperialism’s military offensive. In his remarks, Pflüger boasted that
he had recently visited the troops in Mali, which meant he knows “the needs of
the soldiers” better than anyone else present.
Pflüger also showed no concern about sharing the podium with
the representative of the far-right Alternative for Germany invited by the
Defence Ministry, Rüdiger Lucassen. The right-wing extremist retired colonel
spoke clearest of all about the war and rearmament goals bound up with
purchasing armed drones. “The essential” point in “supporting our soldiers on
deployment” is “the active moment.” The “entire spectrum of conventional and
technical means for waging war” are necessary to “hold down the enemy.”
With its purchasing of armed drones, German imperialism is
underscoring its determination to step up its neocolonial military interventions
and brutally suppress any opposition to them. In so doing, Germany would join
the ranks of military powers like the United States, Britain, Israel, France,
and Saudi Arabia that have unleashed global drone warfare over recent years.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, between 9,000 and 17,000
people have been killed as a result of direct drone strikes.
So-called “targeted killings” are only the tip of the
iceberg. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, official data indicate that
at least 454 children were murdered, mainly by the US military’s “hellfire”
missiles. In 2013, at least 13 guests at a wedding were blown to pieces by a US
drone strike. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump ordered the
assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu
Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The planning and direction of these drone attacks take place
at the American military’s airbase in Ramstein in the German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate. With the headquarters of the “Allied Air Command
Ramstein,” all of the technical capabilities to wage global drone warfare are
already available there for the German army to use.
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which Germany is
developing jointly with France and Spain, plans to integrate fighter jet
missions with drones and satellites to “bring the next generation of the combat
air force into heavy combat environments,” as it states on the website of
Airbus Defence and Space, the arms company involved in construction for the project.
The German army’s murderous plans must be taken as an urgent
warning by all workers and young people. Seventy-five years after the end of
the Second World War, the German ruling class will stop at nothing to enforce
the interests of German capitalism and imperialism at home and abroad. Nobody
should have any illusions. The “heavy combat environments” could also include
revolutionary mass demonstrations and strikes by workers in Germany itself.
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