Historically, Germany has had a ferocious military reputation. But no more it seems. The parliament in Berlin has just been given a report that suggests the country’s armed forces have become so run-down, they might be incapable of doing their job.

The evidence supplied for this is quite startling. The navy has six submarines. At the end of last year, not one of them was capable of putting to sea. The air force has fourteen Airbus A-400M transport aircraft. Investigators found that at times last year, none of these newly-acquired transports was available. Germany’s partnership in the multinational development of this troubled plane - it proved to be overweight and underpowered - was a political decision.

Legislators discovered these were not exceptions to the condition of the armed forces. The state of fighters, tanks, helicopters and other naval vessels was described as “startlingly bad”. And the problems go further. January 2011 saw the last draft of conscripts for the armed forces, ending 50 years in which the majority of German males went through a year of square-bashing and basic military training. Turning the Bundeswehr into a volunteer force was in line with much of the rest of Europe where high-technology requires highly-trained professional soldiers, sailors and airmen. The army was cut from 240,000 to a planned 170,000 with an expected saving of $11 billion a year.

But the plans went wrong. For a start Germany a member of NATO had long missed the organization’s spending target of two percent of GDP. Last year it devoted just 1.2 percent to its armed forces. Since its defeat in the Second World War, like its wartime ally Japan, Germany has shied away from the notion of a strong military. Both countries for years avoided having their armed forces involved in foreign deployments. Cynics made the point that by radically curtailing their defense spending, both Germany and Japan were able to focus funding on their remarkable post-war recoveries, largely protected by the US military umbrella.

In recent years, Washington has become increasingly impatient with Berlin’s unwillingness to carry its fair share of NATO defense expenditure, even though, until Poland and other eastern European countries joined the alliance, it had been in the frontline against the old Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces.

Germany has still not upped the amount it spends on its military, despite the billions saved with the ending of conscription seven years ago. The parliamentary report cites a lack of spare parts and outdated equipment as a major issue. It has been reported that in 2014, during a NATO exercise, some commanders of Germany’s Leopard tanks had to use broomsticks painted black as pretend machine guns because the real weapons were being serviced and no spare replacements were available.

It has also been revealed that the officer corps of the Bundeswehr is seriously understrength. It would appear that, in stark contrast to the Prussian military traditions that led their country into two disastrous world wars, service in the armed forces has little appeal to young Germans. This must have a lot to do with the shame over the country’s belligerent past that has been encouraged in post-war generations. But 73 years on from Germany’s defeat, it is time to adopt a realistic attitude to defense and spend the money that it requires.