Our boys just seem to always be i mean its quite obvious that anything like the german army or the britain despair deployed to more often in two thousand and seventeen than at any other time in its history Foreign Missions defending the country and fulfilling its nato a big ations for years the army had to tighten its belt making savings with materials and personnel but the challenges have increased. Is the bundeswehr up to these new challenges. Dystonia six thousand nato soldiers from countries such as britain france and germany are training with a stone in troops this maneuver is simulating an attack on a nato partner in the boat six the russian border is less than one hundred kilometers away is one of the sergeants here he and his colleagues dont want to reveal their full names for security reasons little by little of all of the political tensions between russia and europe may seem far away to them and yet local politics demands their presence in the forests of dystonia. Five star book it was all of us think that very day to make a lego that was in contrast to an actual mission there were no live munitions here. We say train like you fight and fight like you train for good reason. Dystonia is a member of nato soldiers from Different Countries have to be able to fight together a mission to break through the line of antitank mines without any losses if possible. And if you need to know your fight you know. The unfun of its tense because we always try to train at the highest level its meant to be a realistic scenario as if we had live munitions by the start of it and if it be an image on then troff minds of. Just being moved well thats why were on high alert if we werent then wed just be roaming through the forests like a scout group wearing uniforms but this is a life and death situation every soldier is responsible for everyone else you know come on for their own vod will be from davia and one of the only thing we know for sure is we wont die on this exercise and many feel. German soldiers in the middle of a small stone in village in the future that will become a more common sight in the baltic countries. Of the going to have to Work Together with our allies all around the world and nobody fights alone thats why we have to train for different scenarios oh one Demonstration Mission each nation has to know what skills the others contribute even up to a bit if no one knows that and we cant fight together on the battlefield on these issues imo if i start off. By running. For days training in a stone you will be followed by. A six month deployment to lithuania germany is taking on more responsibility in nato since russia annexed the crimea countries like lithuania are worried the nato presence in the baltic region sends a signal to russia i in london a country such as germany with its great political relevance and its Enormous Economic power has to be ready to take responsibility and that includes places where you might not get praise over the past two years there have been crises around europe a home. That starts on our eastern border the dispute with russia also known as its own was land that is our thats on europes doorstep on this have and it has a major impact on our stability our growth and our future. Is what im here. You know i want it to be very real we all mountains on germanys border with the Czech Republic around three hundred eighty soldiers will be heading from barrack to lithuania Sergeant Young is also here its the last muster on home territory not everyone is happy about the german presence on natos eastern border russia considers it a provocation thats why a reporter from the russian state broadcaster r t has a few questions for the commando. If you would again i want to know why its considered necessary to show an increased presence on lithuanias eastern border but since where is the threat wheres the aggression where the attacks on three for the. From exxon wasnt brought forth of course we are there because of a nato decision made by nato members were there because of the threat perceived by the people of lithuania is their cordoned off rule but i personally feel that this talk of threat is being hyped up. This doesnt look like a policy of determined political signals dont play much of a role for yan and his colleagues they have to follow orders and pack their backs. On a call goes out who can do this then the group the selected and then you go. On to one of them. To lithuania the german soldiers will be stationed here for six months treaties between nato and russia prohibits any permanent presence. Daily routine being fit staying fit just in case jani is thirty nine hes been in the army for twenty one years whats a first to be a soldier back then isnt enough anymore the german army has changed its stance with the equipment. The scans i for their guns was awful so when i started in the army a flak jacket weighed three kilos but windows were blown up the last little question we didnt really notice. Our on a silver map of the middle of oil and these days theres more in the way of protective gear and accessories all of the outlets are from our side of metal. Nato has grown germanys for. Sponsibility doesnt stop at its National Borders anymore defending the country has reached completely new dimensions. This is his concision this is for this is defending your country and your fellow jews as a boy i grew up in northern bavaria and i remember american tanks on the chalkboard one from i lived in a village five hundred metres away and all the talk then was just about National Defense thats lands for tyrone gets in recent years weve had to understand that defending the country is more about defending the alliance and the frontline state is a different country in as it were there for the whole alliance that was always the case of course but it was forgotten this is focused on. Process is logistics maneuvers they all have to work all over the world and often in parallel the bundeswehr doesnt have much time to adapt to the requirements for years it had budget restraints for personnel and military hardware but more and more Foreign Missions were added now its the operation in the baltics. Me of all were definitely having more exercises both nationally and multinational things have also become more flexible and integrated lithuania is a great example because we cant just rely on us driving our tanks from a to b. The dutch come into play the belgians come into play they drive our tanks and we transport their goods you follow ones of a pons all here help with its much more integrated with a less few real photography for example. I get bogarde get my god just being financed isnt enough anymore. Yeah. I probably play they do. Things they have quite cold spells hilo feel its not here on the high good going to be you know then beyond that feeling of boredom and oh yeah ive missed the bus done oh bill commented. I was. Definitely have to be more adaptable and in two thousand and one i didnt have as much personal contact with the other countries we train for through. Loving. Realistic training a soldier has been wounded and medics cooled their belgians a lot of. Multinational warfare sometimes means drawing on the english you learnt its cool to communicate this information to an hour attack we had that i use while not something they lacked in the on the act of combat First Responders good first aid so i will bring it to them. Here before dinner and then from there through the carry briefing rate and its moderate its very high and the other wins for i dont know it was the only one i phone after after the body check. Multinational collaboration means you compare yourself and your equipment with others yans ahmed vehicle the murderer is around thirty years old. Got to watch one of its no Spring Chicken anymore but it works and its reliable when it isnt to fall as if your skill it. But when we speak of modern warfare well theres a lot of room for improvement or additional bezel when. New equipment is needed and old equipment needs to be updated until now the arms business has been rigid and opaque form a Business Consultant cant has been brought in to break up these old structures and make Everything Different and better she first had to change Government Procurement policies guns off didnt was. Since very often defense procurement plans dont have the goal of providing soldiers with the best possible equipment. They served industrial interests and european Political Goals and that was often right for example the a four hundred m. Many euro fighter are projects that have been with us for decades of they were designed so that countries that had once been at war with each other could start to develop defense acquit men together the goal was not to get the best possible equipment as quickly as possible. Weve removed that conflict by saying the bundeswehr will buy what it needs not what its offered it wont buy just what lobbyists are pushing or what industry is producing or what generates jobs and thats a huge change and this is and it wouldnt be hopeless fed no. These changes will take time however. Just being seventy that doesnt mean any contracts have been signed yet and theres definitely not been any equipment thats come to our troops everythings in place on paper the signal has been set but the train hasnt arrived yet at the same time weve got more missions and Training Exercises in Eastern Europe weve been talking about this new direction for the past two or three years when we get any of this new equipment that the soldiers found they sold very hard to understand that kind of calm for fifteen years that will proceed. Thats what we get asked about the m. K. S. The multipurpose combat ship or whats the status of tactical Aerial Defense in these areas weve achieved nothing yet its true thats because it would have been easy to sign any old contract but thats exactly what we want to move away from and what we dont want contracts to omit certain elements so that in the end we find your equipment when you can fire nevermind well sort it out later no were sorting it out now thats why we have to invest so much time in negotiations are difficult because were now telling the Defense Industry no we dont accept that do your homework thats the core change and thats why i say i know its taking a while but at least lets try and do it properly that im out of this this my. Patience is required but theres hardly any time for that because the german army has to fulfill its missions now like here among. The German Military presence here consists of eight hundred seventy five women and men there taking part in the un minnow Small Mission in west africa its the most Dangerous Mission the bundeswehr is involved in in two thousand and thirteen the country threatened to drown in chaos islam is rebels had taken northern mali thousands of people had to flee off the com inst ones on our own views in africa is our neighbor and were connected to it via the mediterranean island mali is chu countries away from germany and mali is one of the Key Countries be it for organized crime for traffickers of drugs arms and people warm and mali was almost overrun by terrorism for us had mali fallen i dont even want to think about what that would have meant for europe and germany before the election and thats why its important to participate in the Un Peacekeeping missions to help stabilize this country as long as its a laborious and a long process but were heading in the right direction. Sergeant issues his last orders before they head into a village lets listen both of them to the stand. The brief to guarantee security so that the truce between the rebel groups and the government in mali can in june. What that means in reality is patrols through the villages in the scorching heat Sergeant Richard was deployed in afghanistan he knows how important it is to win the trust of the local people its war there its all of us with acts of calm. And pop up. Government government. And the form of the brotherhood. Of the from. The village elder wasnt there last time they visited there in luck today if they can speak with him shortly to get information about the situation all around me go no go im not going to look good in the voice of an immigrant of a political. How are things going and were going to be at the moment i will order this over with. One hundred kilometers away rebels terrorize the population and there are casualties the people here are expecting security from the german army permanently troubled years so were hoping the best and we saw your presence as all of this would happen. Just a fella here is a dangerous thing if i compare this to afghanistan is that there we have the taliban the one enemy that attacked us and here we have several groups and you lose sight of who is who voted yes and thats what makes it dangerous i knew going in there from on and move on had also been seen in you. Is very quiet. They argue fairly as a straws we dont sense any aggressiveness towards us. That could change. Thats why we want to have these conversations or for us to be respectable so we argue an adult talked on the issues of. A change security situation would have tangible effects on europe and germany. That dodge have been easy and if we stabilize the situation there and the people have prospects for their future its much better than as getting these large numbers of migrants that we have to confront later in street and not have. The german armies trying to counter the causes of why people flee standing up for german interests in west africa thats hard to understand for many back own a mission of thousands of kilometers away in a country partly ravaged by civil war its tough for the soldiers families to mostly have to promise that i would stay in germany next year and not deploy again. Can you promise things like that. Without so forth were promised but if i can keep pick she done the stand she knows my second families might change if might seem goes ill go with them i cant let them go on their own that if something were to happen to them and i were in there might be very upset. To do an explosives robot contributes to the soldiers safety Sergeant Haney removes explosives and defuses deadly munitions or explosive traps bomb disposal specialists are lifesaving experts theyre deployed in afghanistan here in mali and will be in iraq too but there arent enough of them. After. All and. One reason is that for many years the bundeswehr had different stuffing priorities. One hot afghanistan afghanistan became a closed business and many of the people there were promoted to the next level that means weve lost a lot of practical staff or worn out i still doesnt start a loss on the hundreds of many of the people who are in mali now like myself are doing this for the first time the standard model would be to have someone whos experienced and someone whos inexperienced we hardly have that here. Must come as you come up with. In some areas its a laborious process to bring this expert knowledge back to the team and i had need of craft admissions business man for a little when the military downsized nobody paid attention to what knowledge was being lost what experience was lost so now were lacking that experience though sources of knowledge of civilian businesses manage their Knowledge Base but this place almost no role among politicians so now we have many motivated young soldiers and civilian staff too but we dont have those with the experience for that and so that we dont have anybody who can take these newcomers by the hand and train them as im dimensionally one named included in the hours that some biggest challenge damsels and diaz says i need to cruise to her also will be behind. In q one germanys baltic coast the navy advertises itself as an attractive place to train the head of the navys Recruitment Center wants to turn young people into new sailors leading up we were here for a pic on the field people from five of the kind from. The humvee we have a big problem. Getting young people into the navy particularly into the technical areas such as electronics annoyed to see we have to compete with civilian businesses we want to get people excited about what we do in the navy. You know the guys. Since Compulsory Military Service was abolished the armed forces have had to take care of recruitment on their own the navy has to wet applicants appetite. Here they can make the whole experience more tangible a day at sea the excursions on minesweepers are popular and booked out months in advance this goal is to excite young people about a career at sea the toughest zone specific the navy wants engineers and mine clearance divers its a working environment that isnt for everyone. Says its a job but starting out in the German Armed Forces its not everyones thing and not everyone knows that you count your dog in the navy come by their homes. Many kids yes my whole family is in the forces so its in my genes thats why id like to try it. Last year we had three hundred and twenty young people on board during this Navy Experience event eighty who signed up its the facebook generation thats looking for a future the navy needs around eight hundred new sale is every year people who can cope with a few things in addition to wind and weather. The mike and i if youre not personally interested in this job you wont be happy here you need a dose of idealism and a sense of commitment we have to give a lot we have to rescue refugees from the mediterranean for example but we are able to do these tasks very well you create precedents but you learn whats possible with them. Motivated. Its an attitude we have and we try to instill that in the people who come on a boat and you go off as were going on and you mentioned once again whats also or they would say mental attitude meets reality. Money you have to be aware that you might be gone for three to six months and thats something they do point out which i think is good its a very small space if you look at the sleeping quarters if you can call them that could i really do this for six months what a great man i was obeying almost. The new recruits we call this the hero deck because this is where you can feel the swell the most if there are waves you will fly around a bit and so you have to buckle up. And the armed forces is an employee and become a doctor or an engineer that sounds good at first glance but would be soldiers and sailors have to do a lot of talking to convince friends and family. Everyones against because they see the risk of you dying potentially. You know how do you see it as he said as a species who is not the risk exists of course but i think if you choose the armed forces you have to accept that. The most exciting call for me and im sorry to show comes sure im scared a bit but i think its worth it. For. The German Armed Forces a mirror of society. I think document on the way it has to be thats the only way its attractive to potential recruits. People in this field is just dizzy or giving because the army is embedded in society as a whole and the the traces. Same challenges to do with globalization as other employers the deployments mean you have to be very open about these questions and i think its the mix between the special virtues of a soldier the good training courage but also openness to other cultures along with tolerance. On the nco to on you to soldiers have to have all of that because im saying that some of the rides on. Soldiers only have to perform tasks that are dangerous europes most modern blasting citing stepmom chitin mocked south of stuttgart soldiers learn to disarm and remove live munitions him. Major montane is about to go to afghanistan where hell be an expert advisor with responsibility for a multinational explosive ordinance clearance effort. Yet it will not end. You know when. Your big put it. In the training situation hes given a fictitious scenario a mortar shell in a residential area it has to be disowned without injuring anyone if possible is a little this fragment demonstrates what soldiers have to expect when working with munition last time we have a splinter radius that you can calculate if you know the explosive of course of the most even if you can say the fatal radius is fifty meters or one hundred meters and that will wipe out all life. Is the bits of the Training Program last ten months one requirement is an interest in science after getting had to agree lieutenant how willing completed a Foundation Course on munitions this is very important work you make a huge contribution to protecting your people its one of the few options are for cers have to specialize with and this may look like modeling clay but its actually a high explosive this job requires nerves of steel one wrong move or an incorrect calculation and soldiers could be immortal danger. Which neither of you must number think its routine your was offered out for respect for what you thought of on the other hand you have to have sort of confidence and this. Lieutenant cowling will probably be deployed in this field after completing her training she prefers not to tell her family about the details of how work done they dont really want to know that much theyre very happy with the army generally but they might not think it so great if they found out what sort of work i do. Spend too much when you get. To. The bottom a sphere is desperate for new personnel. The tusks troops have to perform have become more complex so too have the demands placed on the soldiers. You know all. This is not before not its still about equality if we look at the figures where relatively happy around fifty thousand applicants we take on seventeen eighteen thousand per year id say we dont have a problem with new recruits but we do have a problem with skilled staffie and thats true for the economy as a whole thing you have a kind not spoke in the past obama since we have to build a missile because im to bitch the german army has to compete with business and its lacking behind the military needs four hundred fifty explosives experts for its International Missions it will take a while to recruit that many. I might not and see a film of hearings on the stock market or five pound a week. And. I. Lieutenant calley has passed a Training Course here in step. One who are. Part of the stuff of the field officers have the biggest problem filling their quotas they have a lot of missions and thats not whats on that for as an instructor i have to produce the right recruits so that soldiers only have to deploy every two years not every six months like some do today and thats not in most recent outfight so valentine and i beyond deployment succumb more and more often to fill the gaps then needed here in monthly. There are deadly munitions everywhere its a danger not just to some just but also to the local people. To die. By the. Mali has around eighteen million inhabitants gallow is in the north of the country. And. The german army has been part of the un. No Small Mission since two thousand and thirteen initially with one hundred soldiers now with around nine hundred dutch and german personnel are currently sharing camp castoff at the end of the year the dutch forces were handed over the camp entirely to the germans a light Aircraft Group is stationed in money too. They have for n. H. Ninety transport helicopters to recover the wounded. And the. Chief stone of surgeon kathleen normally works in the Army Hospital in hamburg she hasnt yet experienced a life mission but there are regular Training Exercises. Rafiq with on and you fly with a different level of tension than you would in hamburg it could be that you come across someone who wants to harm you with the strain is not just mental its also a special physical strain its still quite cold its just about forty two degrees and the humidity is around seventy to eighty percent that makes it physically more demanding than working on the north german atlanta as well as a lot but in keeping. With the Training Exercise all live mission the team always fly together with a second on telescope to it stays aloft joining the rescue to provide cover for the soldiers on the ground. The Training Mission in the desert isnt without its dangers the soldiers can be shot at from all directions. That the men. Come up either both sides of the aisle at outside. The alice post good have passed off expense you might on the annoyed sick. Or. You know all of last injury get over Little Things went out there for a little link that. Dozens of wounded molly and soldiers have been rescued and cared for by the light and craft group. One hundred twenty nine u. N. Peacekeepers have died to date in mali todays exercise has gone without incident. Four days after filming the chief of Staff Surgeon had to fly her first live mission when two of her colleagues crashed in a comeback tell a cop to for reasons that remain unknown. On the street the bundeswehr and politicians bid their farewell to the two soldiers killed in mali the two soldiers crashed in their helicopter in mali last week. The cause is believed to have been technical failure. To use a target immunity on the optional its a sneeze days were the worst in my political career. I. Dont know what donna because it makes it incredibly clear that these two men gave their lives for this mission in mind sets in the even. Want to diminish your need to interstate. The crash has made the mission in mali painfully visible in germany. Form the core m t s a bunda isnt just a chaplain he listens to sounds as who come to him with their problems fears and worries. If you like many people cant relate to what were doing here and its too far away for them at once and many dont have a good impression of the army unless theres a flood and were lugging sandbags you know mother wants her son to be deployed and not come back alive i think we have work to do in germany where not visible enough i think we should be better represented and were serving germany to where not just some gaius who like running around with guns i think there may be some like that but i think we are serving a country pretty well a Political Tool gee ploy by elected individuals who have forgiven and we just have to present ourselves as such. The purpose of the mission whats going well and whats not that something soldiers often can only discuss with each other interest back home in germany is low. But when youre putting on. The goods the kind of bias almost no one knows what were doing in mali in fact only a few know that were there to begin with which is really sad they dont know that what were doing here has a significance for germany or too many politicians are not behind us we can handle a joke about it but its not nice really isnt it along with a lot of things weve all i want for some time for no solution. And indeed it unsettles the troops in addition the bundeswehr is in the headlines in germany because of internal scandals accusations of abuse right wing extremism a weakness of leadership and i wonder if thats the new going to spare scandal is creating more outrage the army had said that there had been violations respecting Human Dignity sexual selfdetermination and privacy theres talk of abuse as well. And. Defense minister ursula on their lion has acknowledged mistakes in handling extreme right wing tendencies thats just not the front desk these are forceful in news media im not all that concerned that these events occurred you mustnt forget that the armed forces consist of more than two hundred fifty thousand men and women thats more than the population of african which. A lot of good things and bad things will happen and what does bother me is that it has taken so long for these cases to come to light and be dealt with namely months and even years in some cases once and. Not at some time. An indefensible situation but one that doesnt affect the whole of the armed forces thats why many soldiers still at the blanket accusation that they had a problem with that attitude was unjustified they felt publicly pilloried particularly when the ministry of defense ordered all barracks to be search for paraphernalia relating to the verma germany Second World War army. The. Turn was definitely from nish law it wasnt great to be under general suspicion and as one of. The militias it was really quite unsettling. Of we had to open all our barracks and they were searched. Up on is because in all of us it serves there would always was i didnt think it was very encouraging. As a function ive never seen anything like it in the twenty one years that ive been in the army and i dont want to do so long as all of the was the defense minister seems to have distanced herself from her soldiers though she did make a public apology but shes sticking by her intention to implement reforms and turn away from questionable traditions as this is nothing for so does one for theres still a crisis of trust the big challenge is to see whether that can be cured in the coming weeks and months the girls models for the i think a lot more trust was destroyed than many believe flow so it puts his her twin need in things like that always hurt because you have to be willing to confront unpleasant facts you have to be willing to bear the pain and accept that it wont go smoothly alice life things arent all going smoothly in the German Armed Forces and thats no surprise since its going through the greatest paradigm shift in decades the modernizing process for personnel and materials is taking longer than many would like but the troops have to continue fulfilling their brief more responsibility in nato more increasingly dangerous Foreign Missions thats pushing the german army to its limits and does the all of god if these are the tasks the army has to deliver on Foreign Missions defending the country defending nato obligations and we worked it out then thats the staff and the material we need were not trying to win an arms race were just trying to fulfill our Current Missions and we dont want to share tanks or have a shortage of body armor or no munitions if you ask me if something doesnt change in Security Policy and the tasks which arent working then we simply cant fulfill our brief that it was for and ask come and see what michka indication otherwise we risk the safety of our men and women. Skintight cyclists out and in shorts and is a child fans are that an insult that. The army has done so much in the past three years particularly in the International Context thats the story we should be talking about thats the process were currently n. This of who minister funder line was courageous to address these issues she had to first persuade her own party and then the coalition to recruit more people and buy more equipment people noosphere i entered all that oil and had to be backed up by the budget she managed that on paper but the implementation is too slow its important that the main points are considered in the next Coalition Agreement that we have assigns it. So we can be ready for action again in europe sixty one tatic missionary to and says but i have severe. Politics spirit your fill and whats up above politics doesnt affect us here politicians decide things but down on our level its simple we train here and thats your plan your real your liberal your aunt alice thats what out there are decisions we have to accept that are made by our elected representatives and were the organ that implements them if need be simple. But to make sure they can implement them in an emergency the demands in the reality have to come closer together and the Political Leadership need stamina to bring that about. Not serious sportiness since he went to icons show what was. The most a c l the Third Generation said and prospect can say. With its distinctive smell. Humanists. Is known as. You know the banks. And so was the language of im. Speaking the truth global news that matters g. W. Made for mines. Climate change so. Waste. Pollution. Isnt it time for. Eco africa people and projects that are changing our farm for the better its up to us to make a difference lets inspire each other. To go an environment magazine. D. W. We make up oh but we watch as the cost of that Fund Education we ought the Civil Service of. Being one to shape the continents future. To be part of enjoying african youngsters as they share their story their dreams and their challenges. To seventy seven percent a. Platform for africa charge. Chinas state broadcaster has released footage of north Korean Leader kim jong un Meeting Chinese president xi jinping in beijing kims first known foreign trip since taking power is being seen as preparation for planned upcoming summit with south korea and the United States chinas state News Agency Says kim told she he was committed to denuclearize nation. Nato is expelling seven diplomats from russias representation to the alliance the move is a further response international