Hearing protection with a microphone for the entire force – in times of tight budgets, the Bundeswehr buys expensive equipment. According to the Federal Audit Office, this is cheaper.
Berlin – Boris Pistorius and Kay Scheller calculate differently. Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (SPD) expects what could come: an operation. The President of the Federal Audit Office expects what is happening: low tide in the cash register. After criticism from the Federal Audit Office in mid-December about the purchase of machine guns, the armed forces now dismissed again – with the same reason: the Bundeswehr is buying equipment that it will never use. The Federal Audit Office is currently criticizing the procurement of around 200,000 “talking sets with hearing protection function” (SMG), as they are called in official German.
Again Mirror first reported, the Federal Audit Office criticized the fact that all soldiers should receive these headphones with radio communication, although in their opinion only a fifth of those equipped would use the radio function. The rest lacked a radio, meaning the headphones would be largely useless and would therefore be oversized and therefore too expensive. The long-term order with a volume of around three billion euros therefore offers savings potential of more than a third.
The new Bundeswehr deal: hearing protection with radio for the infantrymen
In January 2023, Boris Pistorius took office as Defense Minister with the aim of equipping the Bundeswehr faster, cheaper and more practicably. “We will no longer be able to stop ongoing projects unless they fail,” the SPD politician told the daily News at that time. Other projects should therefore continue, “because we are working within the framework of contracts,” as he said. But “from now on” there will be an end to “golden edge solutions” for the procurement of projects and especially their planning, emphasized the Defense Minister. Pistorius got his hearing protection from his predecessor Christine Lambrecht (SPD) inherited. This is part of a package of measures that she completed in mid-2022 to fully equip the troops with personal protective equipment by 2025; Part of this is also a combat helmet, onto which attachments should be attached in a modular manner.
In this context, around 200,000 speaking sets with hearing protection functions were also put out to tender – like this Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr writes: “The aim and purpose of this procurement is hearing protection that is compatible with the soldier's equipment (head protection area: combat helmet, shooting goggles), which offers the soldier maximum protection, minimizes the risk of permanent hearing damage and allows communication under the conditions when shooting with hand weapons /Anti-tank hand weapons and allows the perception of environmental noise. The speaking set with hearing protection function should be primarily suitable for dismounted forces or infantry use outside of vehicles.”
The Federal Audit Office
After the end of each financial year, the federal government must report to the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag and Bundesrat then decide whether to grant the federal government discharge for the relevant financial year.
“Our comments are an important basis for the discharge procedure. They analyze the federal government's income and expenditure, its assets and its debts. And they make recommendations on how deficits can be eliminated and budget resources can be used more efficiently and effectively.” – Source: Federal Audit Office
In October 2022, the Bundestag released funds for a first tranche of 3,665 of these hi-fi headphones:
around 7.5 million euros. With modern digital capsule hearing protection, soldiers should be able to regulate the volume of ambient noise or conversations. Impulse sound – such as that from shots or detonations – is automatically filtered. Radio devices can be connected to the speaking set using an adapter, so that radio communication is possible even with hearing protection. The cook can do without it, and so can soldiers on supply or staff duty.
Pistorius' new hi-fi headset for the Bundeswehr: unit price 14,000 euros
The experts are amazed at how author “DL2MCD” appears in the magazine Radio amateur writes: Headphones with ANC – Active Noise Cancellation, i.e. active suppression of ambient noise – cost a maximum of 400 to 600 euros for private use, even for top models. The technology behind it was originally developed for pilots and is now also installed in smartphones. 203,000 hearing protection headphones with speaking function are said to cost almost 2.8 billion euros for the Bundeswehr Mirror reported. That's almost 14,000 euros per headphone! Of these are noisy Mirror up to 2600 euros on the pure hardware costs, including maintenance, which is set for seven years.
The intended protection is possible with simpler models, the Federal Audit Office also warns – in which the Defense Department even confirms this in a statement Mirror writes. However, the ministry failed to provide a justification for the need for every soldier to have a speaking function. Instead, according to the ministry, the procurement is “future-oriented and ensures uniform training, even if not all soldiers can use the speech sentence function in the near future.” As a result, there is a “massive gain in ability” that would not be possible with hearing protection alone.
Bundeswehr procurement: But no end to the “golden edge solutions”
Shortly after the tender for the debatable hearing protection, an expert hearing took place in the Parliament's Economic Committee on the Bundeswehr Procurement Acceleration Act (BwBBG) at the beginning of July 2022, which was subsequently passed. In the panel of experts, Annette Lehnigk-Emden made a very clear statement: “The demands are too high. Our documents sometimes describe gold-edged solutions,” complained the President of the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr. Then it is “the task up to the inspector general, together with the receivables controlling, to reduce the receivables and determine whether 80 percent of the receivables fulfillment is enough, with which one could then buy a product that is available on the market.”
The Federal Audit Office is not very impressed by the diffuse “capability gain” of the desired solution. “The Federal Ministry of Defense’s reference to the fact that every soldier can at least use the hearing protection function does not convince the Federal Audit Office,” he writes in his assessment; This would also work with standard market products. Consequently, the Budget Committee should significantly reduce the planned framework agreement. Documents from the Ministry of Defense are also said to have been missing. For example, answers were refused to the question of whether modern headphones might be fully usable in the future because the Bundeswehr wants to purchase radio equipment for all soldiers.
Pistorius' promise: “I want to heal what needs to be healed”
The list of bizarre decisions runs through the history of the Bundeswehr, and the Court of Auditors repeatedly raises its finger – reported around ten years ago Mirror: Last November, the Federal Audit Office criticized the expenditure of around 20 million euros that went into building a new factory in which the Bundeswehr has its own line of medicines and cosmetics manufactured. According to the auditors, the products manufactured there, such as nasal spray, sun cream or lip protection sticks, could be purchased much more cheaply – on the open market.
The President of the Bundeswehr Procurement Office reassures: “You can’t compare us with the purchasing department of a car manufacturer,” says Annette Lehnigk-Emden. She may have actually identified the problem there: “Are the wrong people negotiating?” he asked Deutschlandfunk. “The ministry is often represented by experts, accompanied by lawyers. The lawyers in the Ministry of Defense do not have the best reputation internally. On the industrial side, Bundeswehr insiders report, lawyers and business people are increasingly negotiating, but no longer technicians as before. The aim is to receive orders, everything else is sorted out in the course of production.
The passage from the Deutschlandfunk is ten years old. The most recent Bundeswehr procurement disaster was less than six months ago: hastily purchased digital radios did not fit into the vehicles to be equipped. Federal Defense Minister Pistorius found himself on the defensive, just like him The New Zurich Times quoted. “I would have assumed that before the order was placed, but at least when the order was placed, people would think about how the integration wou
ld take place.” He clarified why that didn’t happen and is now trying to “heal what needs to be healed.” (Karsten Hinzmann)
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