Joint Support Service (Germany)


The Joint Support Service 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.

Organization

Unlike the similar British Defence Logistics Organisation and the Australian Department of Defence's Support Command Australia, Germany's current military environment has led to a number of combat-associated commands being allotted to it, principally the small German territorial defence structure embodied in the four Wehrbereichskommandos, and the national supervision of active German military operations beyond the NATO area, performed by the :de:Einsatzführungskommando der Bundeswehr|Einsatzführungskommando, which is headquartered in Potsdam.
The WBK headquarters are in:
Each Military District Command controls several Landeskommandos due to the federal structure of Germany. Previously this function was carried out by the Verteidigungsbezirkskommandos or Military Region Commands. These command authorities are in charge of all military facilities in their area of responsibility and of several supporting regiments. The SKB was formed on the basis of the former IV Korps. 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 which is in charge of numerous of command and control roles. The Streitkräfteamt directs all schools, training and research centres, the Militärischer Abschirmdienst, and the Bundeswehr's higher academies and universities.

Structure