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The SPD wants to put on hold the Bundeswehr drone armament that the Union requires. The SPD parliamentary group agreed not to agree to assemble the “Heron TP” drone for the time being, but to “discuss it openly and publicly,” defense policy spokesman Fritz Felgentreu said on Twitter.
Earlier, the newspapers of the Funke media group had reported that the leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Rolf Mützenich, had publicly expressed concern on the part of the party’s leader, Norbert Walter-Borjans, to promote the arming of drones.
Felgentreu now wrote that he would resign as spokesman in response to the decision of the party leadership. After lengthy debate and expert hearings, Felgentreu signaled the approval of the weapons project.
Regarding his attitude, he explained: “Or I am on the side of the public and the armed forces, although everyone knows that I do not agree – not very credible. I’m too stubborn for that. I say this in a self-critical way, not flirtatious.
Defense expert Felgentreu announced his retirement from federal politics in the summer. He does not want to run again for the Bundestag term in Berlin’s Neukölln district, Felgentreu announced on his website in June.
Mützenich sees a lack of “broad debate”
Mützenich stated at the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that there was “no comprehensive and detailed debate” on the weapons project called for in the coalition agreement.
The FDP and the Greens had already rejected the criticisms of the lack of debate as inapplicable and asked the SPD to decide for or against arming now.
According to the Funke newspaper report, Mützenich said there was no doubt “that armed and unarmed drones can provide greater protection for service soldiers.”
However, it is also known from practice that armed drones can quickly lower the inhibition threshold for military violence. Mützenich pointed out to the SPD parliamentarians that the massive use of drones by Azerbaijan had decisively decided the conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Many countries would conclude from this that “we also need these weapons.”
In the evening, the Defense Ministry distributed a quote from Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), who had declared the lack of weapons: “We are negligently risking the lives of soldiers and I want to change that.”
Already in 2018, it was decided to rent five “Heron TP” drones from the Israeli manufacturer IAI for the German armed forces. Maintenance is carried out by Airbus.
Unlike the previous model »Heron 1«, which is used in Afghanistan and Mali among others, the »Heron TP« can be assembled. The decision to arm the drones was postponed in 2018 due to differences between the Union and the SPD.
