[Goose]

I thought that Germany was struggling to get to its 2% GDP defense target. Isn’t an easy solution to just accelerate the replenishment of obsolete systems that it can then send to Ukraine.  Maybe also buff up its deferred maintenance?

BC

Absolutely they could do these things, and many others as well. However, their bureaucracy is as bad or worse than ours. Equally bad is their political class who is stalling the voting on expending the funds proposed for these "upgrades". The Greens and the SPD are politically uncomfortable voting to spend money on weapons. Despite the fact they all know that it has to happen, each individual doesn't want their name associated with a "yes" vote. The tank manufacturers are saying they don't have one firm order yet despite all the "noise". That said, these firms have become very profitable doing maintenance on their own products on fixed schedules that are padded to death. These same firms aren't exactly giving out short delivery dates for new purchases or upgrade work either. They are basically "fat and lazy", as the military has been saying for years. The joke is that the military is so conservative that they will "down check" a tank because of a broken tail light and it will remain that way for months because the vendor can't schedule the repair until then :-).

[Goose]

I thought that Germany was struggling to get to its 2% GDP defense target. Isn’t an easy solution to just accelerate the replenishment of obsolete systems that it can then send to Ukraine.  Maybe also buff up its deferred maintenance?

BC

Absolutely they could do these things, and many others as well. However, their bureaucracy is as bad or worse than ours. Equally bad is their political class who is stalling the voting on expending the funds proposed for these "upgrades". The Greens and the SPD are politically uncomfortable voting to spend money on weapons. Despite the fact they all know that it has to happen, each individual doesn't want their name associated with a "yes" vote. The tank manufacturers are saying they don't have one firm order yet despite all the "noise". That said, these firms have become very profitable doing maintenance on their own products on fixed schedules that are padded to death. These same firms aren't exactly giving out short delivery dates for new purchases or upgrade work either. They are basically "fat and lazy", as the military has been saying for years. The joke is that the military is so conservative that they will "down check" a tank because of a broken tail light and it will remain that way for months because the vendor can't schedule the repair until then :-).