It was once considered a joke army, so poorly equipped that its soldiers turned up for Nato training exercises with broomsticks for machine guns.

But Stephan Haisch, a rear admiral in the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, says those days are over.

As Germany prepares for an election on Sunday, with defence a hot-button issue, it is also taking the lead in a new Nato mission to defend the Baltic Sea from Russian sabotage.

Rear-Adml Haisch is the commander of Task Force Baltic (CTF), a German Navy-led Nato headquarters that opened last October in Rostock, on the country’s northern Baltic coast.

His task: to survey and, if necessary, board suspicious ships which may be involved in Russian attempts to cut critical cables on the Baltic seabed.

“Germany is ready and willing to take on responsibility for the Baltic Sea, and is establishing itself as a strong partner,” Rear-Adml Haisch told The Telegraph.

He batted-away suggestions that Germany has been reluctant to take on a bigger role in defending Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.