Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, need up to 35,000 more soldiers to meet NATO’s new defence requirements, according to the head of the parliamentary defence committee. Joining calls for a stronger army to face a growing threat from Russia, Marcus Faber, the chairman of the defence committee of the Bundestag, on Saturday backed plans to raise the number of German combat brigades in NATO from 82 to 131 from 2031. Instead of three divisions with 65,000 soldiers, the German army would then need five divisions, which would correspond to a total of around 100,000 soldiers, Faber told German m…