Joint Support Service (Germany)

Joint Support Service
Streitkräftebasis
Logo of the Joint Support Service
Logo of the Joint Support Service
Active 1 October 2000
Country Germany
Size 28,000 (2023)
Joint Support Service Command Hardthöhe
March Marsch der Streikräftebasis
Website http://www.streitkraeftebasis.de/
Commanders
Inspector Generalleutnant Martin Schelleis (German Air Force)
Deputy Inspector Generalleutnant Peter Bohrer (German Air Force)
Chief of Staff Generalmajor Jürgen Setzer (German Army)
Notable
commanders		 Manfred Nielson, Wolfram Kühn
A Feldjäger MP patrol vehicle

The Joint Support Service (German: Streitkräftebasis, pronounced [ˈʃtʁaɪ̯tˌkʁɛftəˌbaːzɪs] , abbreviated: SKB, pronounced [ɛskaːˈbeː] ; literally Armed Forces Foundation) is a branch of the German Bundeswehr established in October 2000 as a result of major reforms of the Bundeswehr. It handles various logistic and organisational tasks of the Bundeswehr. The SKB is one of six components of the Bundeswehr, the other five being the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Joint Medical Service, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service. As of April 2020, the force is composed of 27,840 personnel. In May 2021 the minister of defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer together with inspector general Eberhard Zorn published a plan to dissolve the Joint Support Service and to reintegrate its units into the army, navy, airforce and cyber command.

Structure

Unlike the similar British Defence Logistics Organisation and the Australian Department of Defence's Support Command Australia, a number of combat-associated commands were allotted to the SKB, principally the small German territorial defence structure embodied in the four Wehrbereichskommandos (Military District Commands), and the national supervision of active German military operations beyond the NATO area, performed by the Armed Forces Operations Command (the Einsatzführungskommando der Bundeswehr), which is headquartered in Potsdam.

The WBK headquarters were in Kiel (WBK I); Mainz (WBK II); Erfurt (WBK III); and Munich (WBK IV). Each Military District Command controlled several Landeskommandos (State Commands) due to the federal structure of Germany. Previously this function was carried out by the Verteidigungsbezirkskommandos (VBKs) or Military Region Commands (Defence District Commands). These commands were in charge of all military facilities in their area of responsibility and of several supporting regiments. The SKB headquarters was formed on the basis of the former IV (German) Corps headquarters. Most of its remaining elements have been reassigned from the Central Military Agencies of the Bundeswehr, encompassing a wide range of logistics agencies, schools, and other support units.

The top command authorities are the Kommando Streitkräftebasis (Joint Support Service Command) which is in charge of numerous of command and control roles. The Streitkräfteamt (Armed Forces Office) directs all schools, training and research centres, the Militärischer Abschirmdienst (Military Counterintelligence Service), and the Bundeswehr's higher academies and universities.

In April 2012 as part of the major reorganisation that ended conscription, the Armed Forces Operations Command (German: Einsatzführungskommando) was resubordinated directly to the Inspector of the Bundeswehr.

In September 2022 annother reorganisation created the Territorial Operations Command (German: Territoriales Führungskommando) from parts of the Joint Support Service, which also was subordinated directly to the Inspector of the Bundeswehr.

Logistic Command

Military Police Command

CBRN-defense Command

  • Bundeswehr CBRN-defense Command, in Bruchsal
    • CBRN-defense and Legal Protection Tasks School, in Sonthofen
    • 7th CBRN-defense Battalion, in Höxter
    • 750th CBRN-defense Battalion, in Bruchsal

Armed Forces Office