Crise nas forças armadas mundiais

[Wingate]

E quem quer saber de exército profissional?

Um exército profissional jamais poderia ter o tamanho do atual Exército brasileiro. Seria preciso ter menos brigadas, menos batalhões, menos regimentos, menos grupos.

E isso quer dizer, menos generais, menos coronéis, menos cadetes da AMAN.

Alguém acredita que uma coisa dessas seja popular dentro do Alto-Comando?

Mas não é só isso.

Um exército profissional também não interessa aos políticos, em especial os paroquianos. Menos quartéis significa menos atividades econômicas em vários municípios. E menos desfiles de 7 de Setembro.

Além do mais, quem vai matar mosquitos da dengue? Quem vai tapar buracos nas estradas? Quem vai asfaltar com custo zero de mão-de-obra (recruta é mais ou menos como um servo de gleba medieval prestando corvéia ao seu senhor).



Vejam estes soldados do Exército. Imaginem que eles tivessem três anos de serviço voluntário nas costas. Soldados capazes de lançar uma granada de mão numa cesta de basquete a vinte metros de distância. Capazes de abater um inimigo a 200 metros, com um só tiro de fuzil. Capazes de resistir a uma carga-suicida de guerrilheiros disparando AKMs em automático total, sem pensar em correr. Especialistas em aproveitar cada haste de capim no terreno como cobertura.

Você vai passar três anos ensinando isso a um soldado para, depois, mandá-lo matar mosquitos da Dengue?

Realmente, a quem interessa um exército profissional no Brasil?

Um amigo meu dos tempos de juventude serviu ao EB um ano depois de mim. Quando foi convocado, trabalhava como auxiliar de mecânico, limpando peças com gasolina dos motores em conserto.

Por obra e graça dos deuses foi chamado para auxiliar na manutenção de viaturas no quartel onde servia. Fez um curso rápido de motores diesel e, quando deu baixa, imediatamente conseguiu emprego na montadora SCANIA.

Mas esses casos são exceções onde deveriam ser uma regra.

Uma pena.

Wingate

[P44]

[P44]

Military Capabilities
Resignation of French armed forces chief highlights decline in defence spending

Nicholas Fiorenza - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
20 July 2017

France's chief of defence staff, Army General Pierre de Villiers, resigned on 19 July because of defence budget savings reported to be EUR850 million (USD978.4 million). In a press release announcing his resignation, he said, "I do not consider myself any longer to be in a position to ensure the army model I believe can guarantee the future protection of France and the French and to support the ambitions of our country."

It is the first resignation of a French chief of defence staff in the history of the Fifth Republic, ie since 1958, according to the newspaper Le Monde .

http://www.janes.com/article/72470/resi ... e-spending

[cabeça de martelo]

German defense budget angers critics — including the defense minister
By: Sebastian Sprenger

COLOGNE, Germany – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet has approved a draft federal budget considered so insufficient for the armed forces by Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen that she submitted a formal note of protest along with her vote.

The unusual move pits the defense chief, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, against finance minister and vice chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party, who crafted the budget primarily with an eye on domestic measures and the premise of incurring no additional debt.

The defense ministry stands to get €38.5 billion in 2018, which is roughly €1.5 billion more than last year, and €41.5 billion in 2019. That trajectory would bring Germany’s share of defense spending measured against gross domestic product to 1.28 percentage points in the next few years, Scholz told reporters in Berlin.

Defense ministry leaders believe they have a requirement for a plus-up of €12 billion by 2021. The money is needed to fix gaping equipment shortfalls and would underpin Germany’s goals in a militarily stronger Europe, the argument goes.

But Scholz’s budget plan only includes upwards of five billion Euros by then, and more than half of that would go toward covering personnel cost increases, according to officials. In response, German media reported that the ministry already was preparing a list of program cancellations involving European allies, including a German-Norwegian submarine cooperation.

Critics panned the budget proposal today, arguing it stands in stark contrast with Germany’s defense and foreign policy ambitions. Given the low availability of much of the Bundeswehr’s equipment, even the prospect of €12 billion more over four years would be the minimum to get problems under control, they said.

“Germany isolates itself with such an emphasis on domestic issues,” said Christian Mölling, analyst with the German Council on Foreign Relations. “We see here the left wing of the SPD pushing its positions.”

Finance minister Scholz today defended the outlook for defense, arguing that the Bundeswehr wouldn’t be able to spend more than is envisioned in the annual increases anyway. “It’s not like you can just go shopping for these things,” he said, referring to the long lead times and bureaucratic processes governing weapons programs.

Scholz even borrowed a military jargon term in his press conference today. Avoiding deficit spending in the budget would make the country more “combat-capable” in times of economic crises, he said.

Marcel Dickow, analyst with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, argues that funds beyond the increases Scholz has proposed would do nothing to solve the Bundeswehr’s “structural” problems.

“It’s true that equipment problems and shortages must be addressed,” he said. “But the failures are grounded in slow acquisition processes and bad management.”

Exactly where Chancellor Merkel falls in all of this is still unclear. Her spokesman Steffen Seibert today sought to downplay the prospect that the current budget proposal would fail to get Germany even close to the NATO-wide spending target of 2 percent of GDP by the middle of the next decade.

“I don’t see the contradiction,” he told reporters in Berlin. “I see the commitment to the NATO goal and the necessity to move in that direction. We are on our way there.”

Negotiations on the budget are expected to continue in the next two months. A final measure will go to parliament for consideration in early July.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/euro ... -minister/