Joint Support Service (Germany)
The Joint Support Service (, , SKB, ; 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), the national supervision of active German military operations beyond the NATO area, performed by the Joint Operations Command (the ), 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 Joint Operations Command (Germany) (German: "Einsatzführungskommando") was resubordinated directly to the Inspector of the Bundeswehr.