BERLIN, April 7 (UPI) -- Germany produces some of the best weapons in the world, but officials complain that the nearly 5,000 German troops in Afghanistan have to fight without them.
Friday's clashes between a Bundeswehr patrol and an estimated 80 Taliban, a heavy firefight that left three Germans dead and eight severely wounded, has sparked concern in Germany that the troops are poorly equipped.
Politicians and military officials say the troops -- stationed in northern Afghanistan where Taliban attacks have been increasing recently -- lack key defense equipment such as transport planes, helicopters, mortar and heavy armored vehicles.
Hellmut Koenigshaus, a senior German defense expert with the government Free Democratic Party, in an interview with German daily Tagesspiegel even called for the Leopard 2 tank, produced by Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, to be deployed to Afghanistan, where Canadian and Dutch troops rely on it.
"Whoever peeks into the muzzle of a Leopard 2 will think twice whether to attack a German patrol," he told the newspaper.
While experts doubt that the Leopard 2, a 60-ton war machine, is suitable for combating the small and highly mobile Taliban groups in northern Afghanistan, even military officials say they need more firepower.
A classified Bundeswehr report, written by a German general and leaked to German newspaper Bild, unveils severe shortcomings when it comes to the equipment on the ground.
The report says the ammunition for the Heckler & Koch G36, a standard Bundeswehr assault rifle, doesn't have enough power to strike down enemy fighters. Similar concerns relate to cannons mounted on the armored vehicles Dingo and Fox.
"Increasing the firepower … is highly necessary," Bild quotes from the report, which adds that the German cannons "are insufficient to penetrate the local houses and walls."
The report also calls for mortar capability sent to Afghanistan. The Germans have none so far, because Berlin has shied away from deploying heavy attack equipment into Afghanistan out of fear it would point to a war-like mission. This would be highly unpopular in largely pacifist Germany.
That doesn't mean Germany lacks the means to attack in grand style. The country is Europe's largest weapons exporter. Its domestic industry is building world-class armored vehicles, artillery and submarines.
Germany is also involved in several large multinational defense projects, such as the Eurofighter jet, the Airbus A400M military transporter and the multipurpose NH90 helicopter developed and built by Eurocopter daughter NHIndustries.
Germany also produces the highly modern Panzerhaubitze 2000, a world-leading self-propelled artillery weapon developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall. While Dutch forces in Afghanistan regularly use these howitzers with a target range of up to 37 miles, the Germans don't have a single one in Afghanistan.
In an interview with UPI a few days before the attack, German security expert Rolf Tophoven said that the Germans have to rent Uzbek civil airplanes to haul their troops into Afghanistan. He added that the Bundeswehr needed "more armored vehicles and heavy mortar."
Other officials have criticized the lack of helicopters -- Germany has six CH-53 helicopters in Afghanistan, but they entered service in the 1960s and are often grounded for repairs.
Germany has ordered the NH90 helicopter, but the price for a single aircraft has tripled compared with initial estimates, and the delivery date has been pushed back by three years to 2012.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has already tried to do damage control.
"The German government is doing everything to ensure that the troops get the best equipment," he told Bild. "At the same time I assure you that if new issues are arising, the German government and the Bundeswehr will tackle them immediately."
