Interview with the military vice president of the Federal Office for Information Technology, Use and Equipment of the Bundeswehr, Major General Dipl.-Ing. Gert Nultsch
ES & T: Mr. General, which current topic areas have particular priority for you at the moment?
Nultsch:If I follow the rationale of planning, and only planning has an articulated and approved rationale, it would be to achieve the interim goal number 1 of the Bundeswehr's capability profile. This is ensuring the material equipment of NATO's spearhead, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) 2023. This is the core of our efforts.
In addition, there are decisions that are politically driven and equally influence our work here. I'm thinking here, for example, of German-French projects. Here, using the example of the Tiger support helicopter and the HAP (Hélicoptère d'Appui et Protection), one could clearly see how the late effect of this will was particularly positive.
What actually has priority in the end? Intelligent resource management that protects against losing people here in the company.
ES & T:What are the main areas of responsibility of the military vice president of the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Operations of the Bundeswehr? What influence can you have on the projects?
Nultsch: We are the only federal agency to have two vice presidents - one military and one civilian, with the military coded as civilian-military. So it could also be a civilian vice president. Previously, it was traditional for the civilian vice president to limit himself to the topics of contracts, legal services and operational procurement, while the military vice president dealt primarily with the operational departments.
Now I am also a military superior and try to be actively involved as such. In addition, there is the task of being a representative for reservist matters, because we are not a small consumer with around 30,000 days of reservist service. Without our reservists we would not be able to carry out many tasks.
When I look at the projects, I would like to point out that this only serves one segment. The philosophy of Customer Product Management (CPM, see box) also looks towards MOTS (Modifiable off-the-shelf) and defines the classic project here.
In the area of IT, we will have to move much more towards programs and architectures. The bottom line is that we are an office that conducts operational procurement. So I don't have any specific influence on projects, but of course I sign the CPM documents. Following a holistic approach, I do not see an immediate task here, but rather an indirect one.
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