[Skybird]

While the research for the cause of the accident has just started and the Luftwaffe still sends troops, researchers, military police and the likes to the locations, and politicians say they want to wait for the results of the investigation and that will take days at least, media already try to trigger the early blame game. Always mentioned gets of course that of 128 Eurofighters last year just 39 were ready for operation, and according to some reports - which the defence ministry refused to comment on and thr Luftwaffe deflected any questions on - it in fact were even as few as just 4. The base commander or squsadron commaneder also was on TV just minutes ago and confirmed that of 150 planned flying hours per pilot, last year less than 100 actually were flown - and he said explcvitly that the reduction in flying hours causes clear and present deficits in pilots' skills.



The big issue with the Eurofighter is that the wepain systems still are unreliable despite the plane beign in service since 15 years now, and that spare parts are short or even unavailable. The latter is a proboem that haunts all branches of the armed forces and practically all carrier platforms. The logistical reserves of the Bundeswehr are said to be not just zero, "but negative". What that means is described by the German phrase "auf Verschleiß fahren". True for the German railway. True for the German bridges and highway network. True for the armed forces. I do not know an English translation for the phrase. It means to run systems and hardware in a way that they are not maintained to prolongue their longevity, but that they get managed by almost self-cannibalization, shortening their life expectancy. The longer you do so, the harder it gets to ever get it repaired again and back into shape.


That is the media trying to pull a sensatiopnal story. But these truths now presented again, are old news and not unheard of before. Whether the accident today is due to these causes, so far is unclear.