Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH

GERMAN DEFENCE minister Volker R_he is at loggerheads with finance minister Theo Waigel over plans to drain Germany's ever-shrinking defence budget still further.

According to Government sources, Waigel wants to reduce the 1997 budget from the planned DM48.4 billion ($31.8 billion) - formerly guaranteed by the ruling coalition - to DM46 billion, and freeze it at this level for the rest of the century.

The sources add that this would call into question the future of all major military-procurement programmes, including Germany's planned 180 Eurofighter EF2000s, and would require further radical restructuring of the armed forces. "This is not acceptable to the Ministry of Defence," says the source. A decision must be taken by 10 July, when the DM438 billion Federal Budget is to be adopted by the cabinet. The defence ministry will then draft its 1997 Armed Forces Plan, scheduled to be published in September.

The annually prepared Plan covers a four-year period, and now threatens to look radically different from the 1996 version.

Talks between Ruhe and Waigel reportedly collapsed in late June, with Ruhe declining to negotiate further as long as Waigel persists in pursuing cuts of this size.

Including the most recent DM1.125 billion slice taken out of its budget this year (Flight International, 29 May-4 June), the German defence ministry has had to tighten its belt to the tune of almost DM6.5 billion since 1990. Taking currency depreciation into account, the cut is worth close to DM15 billion.

The 1996 cut is forcing the ministry to withdraw 1996 procurement funding for the Franco-German MAW Apache stand-off anti-runway weapon, as well as for two Airbus A310 multi-role transports, four Eurocopter AS332 Super Pumas and two Challenger 601s for VIP transport.

The ministry is also withdrawing 1996 development funding formerly allocated to Germany's Patriot surface-to-air missile upgrade, the medium- and long-range Trigat anti-tank missile and the beleaguered European Future Large Aircraft (FLA).

The budget had previously included DM260 million for pre-development of the FLA.

The ministry is also saving DM120 million by delaying planned procurement of aircraft spares, including those needed for its Panavia Tornado fleet.

Source: Flight International