German plans for encrypted army radios face two-year delay -official

Germany's plans to fit its military vehicles with new digital encrypted radios will face a delay of around two years to 2027 due to the complexities involved, a defence ministry official told the online outlet Table.Media in an interview on Monday.

Germany's plans to fit its military vehicles with new digital encrypted radios will face a delay of around two years to 2027 due to the complexities involved, a defence ministry official told the online outlet Table.Media in an interview on Monday. The move to the newer radios is part of the broader push to modernise Germany's armed forces that Chancellor Olaf Scholz kicked off in a major shift of policy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"The eventual delay will be approximately two years. This means that a large-scale retrofitting in 2025 will be more like 2027," said the head of the cyber and information technology department in the Ministry of Defence, Michael Vetter. There were added complexities involved in fitting the vehicles, especially as "a large number of vehicles were handed over to Ukraine", he said.

Aiming to bring the Bundeswehr's weapons and equipment back up to standard after decades of attrition following the end of the Cold War, Scholz announced a 100-billion-euro special defence fund three days after the start of the war in Ukraine. In the past, German troops have borrowed encrypted radios from forces they cooperated with in places such as Mali in order not to jeopardize joint operations. (Writing by Matthias Williams Editing by Miranda Murray and Kirsti Knolle)

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