The report outlined the European power's more assertive foreign military involvement, including its navy's first-ever shots fired in a combat situation.

Despite Berlin's plans to boost its military forces, the Bundeswehr still falls woefully short of filling its ranks, a new report says. Defense Commissioner Eva Högl has called for a new and improved conscription model.

The German military is facing severe personnel shortages, and those who do serve are growing older, the German parliament's commissioner for the armed forces warned in her latest annual report released on Tuesday.