German Navy unveils 3 priorities for 2024

Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack, Chief of the German Navy, has set the three top priorities of the navy for the next twelve months.

“The past year has shown how quickly and flexibly the German Navy can and must be able to react to changes in the situation of an emergency,” Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack stated during the Historic-Tactical Conference (HiTaTa) of the German Navy in Linstow.

In 2024, the fleet will continue to pursue the course of consistently aligning the navy with the requirements of national and alliance defense.

Kaack’s priorities for 2024 include three points — personnel, munitions and the Indo-Pacific Deployment.

1. First: “Staff readiness will be the crucial task in the coming years. It has been extremely unsatisfactory for years and is putting our people under a lot of stress,” said Kaack. In 2024, a particular focus will be once again on recruiting and retaining personnel.
2. Second: The equipment and procurement of ammunition must be adapted to the current and foreseeable needs of the German Navy in training and operations, according to Kaack. He particularly emphasized the aspects of “battle-decisive ammunition” and “high-energy weapons”. 
3. Third:  For Vice Admiral Kacck, the Indo-Pacific Deployment is the navy’s major project for 2024. The deployment of a frigate and a task force supplier around the globe for several months is not a normal “training trip in foreign waters”, as the formal term suggests, but a real operation. It will “strengthen Germany’s defense diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region,” explained Kaack.

During his speech, Kaack also summarized the past year for the navy.

“Creating the foundations for the modernization of the German Navy was one of the main challenges in 2023 and resulted in our ‘Navy 2035+ Course’,” he said.

In September 2023, the German Navy was able to demonstrate with the DEU MARFOR staff in the Northern Coasts maneuver that it is ready and able to take on more leadership responsibility in the Baltic Sea region. Around 30 ships and over 3,000 soldiers were brought from Rostock, 1,000 kilometers away.

The inspector also emphasized the importance of the new Warnowwerft naval arsenal in Rostock.

“This means that we finally have a strong logistical and technical footprint in the Baltic Sea again. The first maintenance measures on our own and allied units have been carried out.”