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Title: Germany’s Typhoon problem: Only four fighters can be made combat ready [also tanks, ships, subs, copters]
Source:
ArsTechnica
URL Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy ... at-ready/?comments=1&start=120
Published: May 15, 2018
Author: Sean Gallagher
Post Date: 2018-05-16 02:50:28 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 12866
Comments: 81
If you thought the US Department of Defense's procurement adventures with the F-35 and other big-budget weapons systems are bad, you might want to check out what's going on in Europe, where defense procurement battles have left most of the German Luftwaffe grounded for lack of parts. Last week, at the annual Charlemagne Prize ceremony in Aachen, Germany—in which French President Emmanuel Macron was recognized for his efforts on behalf of European unity—German Prime Minister Angela Merkel pronounced that Europe could no longer depend on the United States for its protection. "Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands," Merkel said. "That is the task of the future." Merkel has given this message before. But if Europe is to take its destiny into its own hands any time soon, Germany has a lot of work to do—the Bundeswehr, Germany's defense ministry, is suffering from multiple readiness crises in a culmination of years of cost-shaving and poor management decisions. And the latest symptom to emerge of that crisis is the dwindling number of actually functional fighter jets that the Luftwaffe, Germany's air force, can actually call combat ready. For the Eurofighter Typhoon, Germany's main fighter aircraft, that number is four—out of a total of 128. According to a report in Der Spiegel, the Bundeswehr has claimed in an official report to the Bundestag (Germany's legislature) that 39 Typhoon fighters were designated as ready for missions last year. But that report named any aircraft that was capable of flying as being "ready." In fact, only 10 aircraft currently have all their systems functioning, because of a problem that has plagued the defensive aid subsystem (DASS) of Germany's version of the Typhoon. One component of the DASS is a wing pod that contains the aircraft's electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment—its gear for jamming the radar of incoming missiles—and parts of the aircraft's electronic support measure systems, which include radar lock warning and target identification. During the development of the Typhoon, Germany decided to break off from the Eurofighter consortium and fund the development of a domestically built DASS by Daimler Aerospace (DASA). Eventually Germany re-entered the fold, and DASA was absorbed into the European defense conglomerate EADS. But the money-saving maneuvering has continued, as the Bundestag strove to reduce stock in repair parts and opt for "just-in-time" ordering. Unfortunately, the DASS pods on Germany's Typhoons have been failing because of coolant leaks. And the supplier for the part needed to repair the leak is no longer in business. As the rest of Eurofighters' customers are upgrading their DASS systems to the Praetorian DASS from the Italian defense company Leonardo, the factory for the part was sold—and Germany, which did not opt for the upgrade, is now left without a supplier. Cost-cutting procurement strategies have caused problems elsewhere over the past year for the Bundeswehr: The only saving grace for the Bundeswehr is that with the wind-down of NATO support in Afghanistan, there's no immediate combat mission for the German military. And as Der Spiegel's Matthias Gebauer was told by a Bundeswehr source, "We can say with a good conscience that large parts of the [German armed forces] are mission ready, because there is currently no mission."
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Germany doesn't need an army at all. France, England and the United States have nuclear weapons, and the Russians don't have the armed strength to get across Poland against US, Polish and NATO resistance.
And given that nuclear weapons mean that Russia can't attack Germany (or vice versa) anyway, why throw all that money down a rathole? Abolish the military and be done with it. What good does the German army do for anybody? It's an expensive white elephant.
#3. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
Germany doesn't need an army at all. France, England and the United States have nuclear weapons, and the Russians don't have the armed strength to get across Poland against US, Polish and NATO resistance.
Then we need no armies at all, do we? Navies? Piffle. We'll just nuke everybody as a standard response to anything.
What if we're not willing to nuke humanity and civilization when some nuclear-armed aggressor like Iran or North Korea starts carving up Europe or Asia or the Mideast?
The Soviets were never all that afraid of our nukes, you know. The Soviet archives reveal that they took nuclear exchanges as a given in a war with America. Other hardnosed opponents will do the same.
We can threaten all we want but don't be so sure we're willing to ignite a world holocaust just because Russia takes Finland. Or Sweden and Norway. Or the Baltics. Or all of them.
#5. To: Tooconservative (#3)
Then we need no armies at all, do we?
I didn't say WE didn't need armies. WE are Rome, the world empire. WE need conventional forces to protect and expand that empire. GERMANY doesn't need an army, and if I were German, I'd be clamoring to save all of that money and pay off the national debt.
#8. To: Vicomte13, misterwhite, sneakypete (#5) (Edited)
I didn't say WE didn't need armies. WE are Rome, the world empire. WE need conventional forces to protect and expand that empire. GERMANY doesn't need an army, and if I were German, I'd be clamoring to save all of that money and pay off the national debt.
And the payoff for the American working class who will have to fight and die for the privilege of defending the EU and other lazy cowardly countries that pretend to be our allies?
Why should any of us agree to that?
Carnegie Europe: NATO’s European Allies Won’t Fight for Article 5
| Between April 6 and May 15, 2015, the Pew Research Center carried out a survey of 11,116 respondents in eight NATO countries as well as in Russia and Ukraine. The NATO countries were Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The respondents from these countries were asked about Ukraine and Russia. Few surprises here. Across all eight nations, a median of 70 percent supported sending economic aid to Ukraine, and 57 percent backed Ukraine joining NATO—although Germany and Italy came out strongly against, with respectively only 36 percent and 35 percent of respondents in favor. On average, 41 percent of all those surveyed supported sending arms to Ukraine, and 50 percent favored Ukraine joining the EU. But when it came to committing to upholding Article 5—the alliance’s sacred cow, which requires NATO members to defend an ally if it is attacked—the results were devastating. The Pew poll showed that among Europeans, a median of 49 percent of respondents thought their country should not defend an ally, a response that exposes a lack of commitment to collective defense. Not only that: the majority of Europeans (67 percent), with the surprising exception of the Poles (49 percent), believed the United States would come to the defense of its allies. Despite war-weariness in the United States and Canada, these are the two countries that are willing to use force if Russia attacks a NATO ally. That was the view of 56 percent of Americans and 53 percent of Canadians. The United States is also proposing to store heavy weapons and equipment for up to 5,000 troops in Eastern Europe. What a commitment to NATO and to Europe. Of the Europeans polled, the Brits were the most in favor of the use of force to defend their allies (49 percent). As for the Poles, of whom a whopping 70 percent saw Russia as a major military threat to neighboring countries, only 48 percent of those surveyed supported military action in case of an attack. . . . That aside, the biggest response against using force against Russia came from Germany. Only 38 percent of Germans, the lowest score among the eight NATO allies polled, would use force to defend an ally. This seems to jar with Germany’s decision to become involved in training exercises in Poland. Germany has joined NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, a spearhead force created in September 2014 that is to be deployed to Eastern Europe. Berlin intends to send 1,000 troops to a 5,000-strong brigade. Prior to its agreement to participate in this operation, Germany had opposed NATO deploying permanent bases in Eastern Europe. Maybe this is a compensation gesture. |
So it is the job of American boys to die for Europe with possibly some Canucks thrown in to help a little, mostly if England is under threat.
We don't have allies. We have military dependents. They're almost entirely worthless.
We need to cut them loose if they will not accept and fulfill their treaty obligations. If they don't want defense, there is no rational reason why we should foot the bill for defending them. Let them deal with Russia on their own. Let them deal with Turkey, another alleged NATO ally, deliberately unleashing waves of Third Worlders to live off EU social welfare and establish lawless ghettos and pockets of totalitarian sympathies throughout the rotten EU domain.
But don't you dare ask us to clean up their EU mess when it all turns to shite. Again.
#26. To: Tooconservative (#8)
And to complete this farce, the Germans -- who citizens do not intend to fight for any other NATO countries -
Let's be fair,here. The sad,sad truth is that there are damn few genetic Germans left. Most bled out in WW-1 or WW-2,leaving their women to be impregnated by Slavs,French,English,and American occupation forces.
Now they are even importing hordes of Muslims to take over,thinking they will do the menial work and pay the taxes to allow them to retire in comfort.
It's enough to make you think most post-WW-1 and WW-2 German women were impregnated by Frenchmen.
#38. To: sneakypete (#26)
It's enough to make you think most post-WW-1 and WW-2 German women were impregnated by Frenchmen.
We have a checkered military record, but we're really, REALLY good at THAT.
#39. To: Vicomte13, sneakypete (#38)
We have a checkered military record, but we're really, REALLY good at THAT.
Here is how Germans were forming the image in Polish minds of coming Red Army soldiers. Still persists.
#40. To: A Pole (#39)
Find some German propaganda about the French.
#41. To: Vicomte13 (#40) (Edited)
Find some German propaganda about the French.
#43. To: A Pole (#41)
That's French fascist propaganda. I'm asking for German propaganda that is aimed at motivating the Germans to fight the French.
I like that the 1941 Vichy poster names de Gaulle, alongside of "The Jew", "The Lie" and "Free-Masonry" as the enemy of the new French people who want these antagonists to "Leave us be!" as they plant their new seedling fascist state. Awwww.
De Gaulle grated on everybody's nerves - his commanders before the war, the Germans, the Vichy French, the British, the Americans, the Soviets, the French Right, the French Left, the French students - he was an immensely irritating man, because he had a habit of winning the day and not letting anybody get anything over on him and his idea of "Deep France" - "la France profonde". Even his symbology - the Cross of Lorraine, which was, of course, the homeland of Joan of Arc and all that meant against, well, everybody who wasn't French, including the French on the wrong side!
Richard Nixon's assessment of de Gaulle: "He was stubborn, wilfull, supremely self-confident, a man of enormous ego and yet at the same time enormous selflessness: He was demanding not for himself but for France. He lived simply but dreamed grandly. He acted a part, playing a role he created in a way that fit only one actor. Even more he fashioned himself so he could play it. He created de Gaulle, the public person, to play the role of de Gaulle, the personification of France."
So, find me some German anti-French propaganda. It's a tough thing to you, you'll find. The Germans, like the English and the Dutch, and the Americans have always been immensely conflicted about France.
The Germans have always though the best life "Wie die Lieber Gott im Frankreich" - to live like God in France.
My take on it: France is what happens when Ireland wins the lottery. The French are Celts - France is a giant Ireland = and the Celtic character is both jovial and combative, at the same time. The Irish and Scots were always poor, but France is insanely rich land - the world's best garden - and so the French have always been well fed, well-drunk, oversexed, and luxurious. And they've had the money to lavish on things they like, and they're all individualistic, so they like so many things.
I'm feeling Gaullish today. Some quotes:
"Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in."
Said in July, 1944, to refuse to open the windows to acknowledge the crowd celebrating the re-establishment of the French Republic: "It is unnecessary, for the Republic has never ceased to exist. I was the Republic."
"Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities."
"No policy is worth anything outside of reality."
"Of course one can jump up and down yelling Europe! Europe! Europe! But it amounts to nothing and it means nothing."
"Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first."
"France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes."
"The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times."
"Within ten years, we shall have the means to kill 80 million Russians. I truly believe that one does not light-heartedly attack people who are able to kill 80 million Russians, even if one can kill 800 million French, that is if there were 800 million French."
"I am not ill. But do not worry, one day, I will certainly die."
"Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator?"
"How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?"
#50. To: Vicomte13 (#43) (Edited)
I'm asking for German propaganda that is aimed at motivating the Germans to fight the French.
I tried. I could not find any. Perhaps you will be more lucky.
One Polish political science and philosophy professor (that I know personally), claims that France is the perfect state. No matter who would win the WWII, French would be on the winning side ;) It takes a lot of wit! And Paris survived intact not like Warsaw. He wants Poles to be more prudent.
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