Why Germany needs its own DARPA

The aggression of the Russian state towards the Ukraine made it very clear, the time of major wars within Europe is unfortunately not over. It became also painfully clear that the German politic of appeasement has failed. If the other side has no interest in peace, all diplomatic measure are bound to fail.

The increase of the German defense budget to 100B EUR and the promise to at least invest 2% of the GDP is a good first step to get the German military ready to defend it's borders, which it is to be painfully honest currently not.

The question now is, how to spend this extra money?! It is clear that most of the money will be needed to fix the desolate state of the German military to compensate for some of the neglect it has encountered over the last years. Ammunition, uniforms, helicopters, jets and drones that actually fly, working tanks and many other things are desperately needed.

However, I would argue that one major issue of the German military is the pure focus on procurement, not on innovation. Procurement will be able to solve some of the short term needs of the Bundeswehr, however, long-term competitiveness on the battlefield (land, air, water, space or cyber) is only assured by investing in innovation. Building the military technology of the future and not purchasing what others already using for years.

In 2018 the first steps were done by founding the Cyber and Information Domain Service (CIDS). However, the CIDS is focusing purely on cyber warfare. In my opinion Germany needs a defense research center similar to DARPA, that is not just focusing on cyber defense, but on all matters military. Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, New Materials, Telecommunication, Quantum Computation, AI/ML and many many other upcoming technologies. This will not protect the borders in the short term, but will increase battle readiness and competitiveness of the Bundeswehr in the long run.

What are your thoughts about that?