Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
The link Catfish posted in the German politics thread about your country ordering five Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for 1.1 billion euro, might have something to do with that.
Are we witnessing the birth of the German military industrial complex?
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No, you missed the real reason by a huge margin. Keep it simple! The reason is simply the most obvious, in this case. The German forces are in a pitiful state. The few old P-3 Orions the German operate already were obsolete when Germany bought them used from the Netherlands several years ago - and already back then it was a desparate act, wanting to save the money but needing to invest into the unloved armed forces.
See, when the last German military unit returned from Afghanistan a few days ago, there was no defence minister or her debuty present for a greeting or last flag appeal. No representative of the govenrment. No representative of the Bundestag. And this although they say the German army is a parliament's army. Aboslutely zero political recognition. None. This tells you something!
Two parties in the Bundestag in principle want to dismantle the armed forces and NATO alltogether.
And btw, the Bundeswehr's procurement office and the attached planning offices, have a terrible reputation and are hopelessly over-"bureaucracisied" (overblown in buraucratic measures and hierarchical levels), probbaly all dfeenc emionsitries ar eiek that, mroe or less, but in case of the Germans the situation is especially bad. Too many cooks spoil the brew. Or in this case: too many generals and high ranking officers. It has been estimated that one could cut down these procedures by 80-90% and one would not lose but gain quality in result.
Not industrial-military complex. But getting bogged down. Berlin Airport, anyone? Stuttgart 21? Frankfurt 2040? Energiewende and Denuclearization? Germany cannot properly plan and soberly manage big projects anymore, can no longer form realistic ideas and mental images of reality, that simple it is. The admired and sometimes feared proverbial efficiency of the Germans in these regards - is no more.