January 17, 2025: This year Germany is increasing the number of divisions in its 180,000 strong army from three to four divisions without increasing the size of the army. Germany also has 30,000 army reservists. In 1991, after the Cold War ended and Germany was reunited the combined German army had nearly half a million troops. Over the next twenty years that declined to 180,000. Then Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 triggered a period of rearmament and reorganization among NATO nations closest to Ukraine and Russia.

One major change was the creation of a territorial defense division composed of reservists who will staff six regiments of a thousand men each to protect critical transportation and infrastructure assets during a crisis.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a wakeup call for nearby NATO countries that they might eventually have problems with Russia. This led to increases in defense spending and reorganization of armed forces.

Germany was particularly keen on upgrading their defenses. Only Poland stands between Germany and Russia and the Poles began creating what is becoming the powerful military in Europe. That includes a force of 1,600 tanks as well as 2,000 armored infantry vehicles plus self-propelled artillery, and multiple rocket launchers. There are also several thousand armored and unarmored, mostly wheeled but some tracked support vehicles.

Germany is much less prepared than Poland with only 295 tanks. As the war in Ukraine continues, Germany plans to expand its tanks force and obtain armaments similar to those now used by Poland. In addition to offensive armaments, Germany is reviving its Cold War era territorial forces. Before East and West German were reunited in 1990. West Germany maintained extensive territorial forces to guard the rear area, which included most of West German, from Russian or East German commando attack and sabotage.

In 2024 Russia prepared to resume its long dormant sabotage campaign in Western Europe, Germany wants to be prepared if the Russian army attacks NATO and increases its sabotage activity. German intelligence has been searching for Russian sleeper agents since the 1990s while the Russians have been sending more of these operatives to Germany.