The Quest for Relevant Air Power

GERMAN Air Force │ 203
GAF Patriot unit during Exercise ELITE in Germany
Courtesy GAF; photo by Oliver Fischer
that is preparing itself to commensurately take on its share in the
international arena.
At the outset of the post–Cold War era, German reunification
required the GAF to swiftly take on the responsibility for air policing
across the entire reunified territory, a task that had so far been
accomplished by the USAF and RAF in Western Germany. Moreover,
integration of former East German Air Force personnel presented
a particular challenge that was successfully met. For the
remainder of the 1990s, however, German decision makers only
reluctantly transformed the German armed forces and adhered to
Cold War principles. A reorientation started only in 1999–2000.
Particularly, Struck’s adjustments of the ongoing reform during
2002–3 represented the most decisive milestone step in Germany’s
military transformation since the end of the Cold War. No longer
did the most perilous operations determine the structure of the
German Armed Forces, but the most likely operations. As a consequence,
out-of-area operations became the defining criterion.
As such, Struck’s adjustments were de facto a reform in their own
right. Only three years later, however, the White Paper 2006 partially
reversed the progressive keynote of the Defence Policy Guidelines
2003 by reemphasising national and collective defence in the