The German military is chronically underfinanced. Now Defense Minister Peter Struck wants to cut €6 billion ($5.9 billion) by 2006. Struck is expected to announce the details this week. Meanwhile, the German press has already been reporting on the extent of the reductions.

The idea is to cut down on numbers without reducing effectiveness or hindering efforts to modernize the armed forces. It's not a new idea. Plans by Struck's predecessor, Rudolf Scharping, to reform the German military were passed by parliament in 1999.

But now Struck has commissioned Bundeswehr Inspector General Wolfgang Schneiderhan to re-examine military spending projects. The armed forces has a budget of €23.7 billion, plus an additional €767 million for fighting terrorism. In coming years the military will have to make do with €24.4 billion -- too little for big new projects. Former defense minister Scharping's plans, however, would require €10 billion more than the government has allotted the military for the next 10 years.

No troop reductions

Schneiderhan handed in his report to Struck on Friday. Until a decision is finally made whether to end mandatory conscription troop reductions won't be made. The forces will retain 282,000 soldiers (currently 300,000) and money will be saved mainly on reducing acquisitions.

Structural changes will focus largely on the army. There will be fewer armed troops and more emphasis on transport, logistics and leadership to take into account the current tendency towards numerous smaller operations taking place at the same time. In the past, the German armed forces were equipped to deal with two mid-sized operations at once.

Perhaps the most sensitive of the proposals will be sizable reductions in orders for Airbus A400M military transport aircraft. Germany had already ordered 73 A400Ms, but will likely reduce the number to 60. Earlier this year, the German parliament approved buying 40 of the Airbus planes, a move that upset Britain and France. Defense ministers from both countries warned that the reduced acquisition would harm the development of a European military rapid reaction force.

Further cuts involve

• Acquiring 80 Tiger helicopters instead of 212;
• The decommissioning of Tornado fighter jets;
• Meteor and Iris-T rockets used to arm Eurofighters jets will be reduced;
• Only half of the 200 Tornado fighter planes will be modernized;
• The air force will phase out Hawk air defense missiles and UH-1D helicopters earlier than planned;
• The marines will retire nearly a dozen fast boots and receive fewer frigates, corvettes and submarines than Bundeswehr reform originally called for.

A government spokesman said it was expected that Struck would announce his plans at this week's cabinet meeting before going public with them on Thursday.