DesertFox
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Posts
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Posts posted by DesertFox
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12 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
These are likely from 1st Cav's rotation.
Yeah, I think so too. We have already seen their Bradleys on trains in Poland.
But there is some "other" activity going on in Germany:
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11 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:
The Netherlands will apparently send 18 Leopard 2.
Very good!
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If they could convice Greece and Spain to replace their Leo IIs with M1 Abrams tanks, that would free up a significant number for use in Ukraine.
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3 minutes ago, Butschi said:
No.
Your call.
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8 minutes ago, Huba said:
Awesome, it means it will be equipment form BW stock! Hopefully it will also mean no more block for industry selling what they have on their hands.
Let´s hope so. AFAIK there are still 88 Leo 1A5 with Rheinmetall and additional 100 1A5 with FFG, plus 50 odd Leo II in the industry.
However lets wait how many Leo II A4/A5/A6/PL/ES they can scrape together to be sent over.
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2 minutes ago, Butschi said:
It's not about a conventional attack, noone believes in that, not even in Germany. Nuclear war is what people fear. And saying that the US would retaliate - and so risk destruction themselves - in case of a nuclear strike against Europe alone is at least asking for a lot of trust.
We grew up with this latent nuclear threat in europe. People need to get used to it. If they push the button they will be dead in no time. They know it, so no need to be afraid of it or to get blackmailed by the russians with their nuclear nonsense. They wont use it, and if they use it, no politician can avoid that, because they have to be insane to do so and you cant stop lunatics by politics. So get used to it and carry on as if nukes were not existant.
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3 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:
Wait, are you claiming Ukraine doesn't use anti-personnel mines in the war?
Background Briefing on Landmine Use in Ukraine | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
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Pistorius desperately tries to spin things...
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52 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
Leos2 have the potential to make some people very rich.
Well of course. Don´t expect them to have less corruption than european parliament or german federal government agencies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63941509
Explainer: How a German ‘climate’ fund fought US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 – EURACTIV.com
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58 minutes ago, Butschi said:
Many Germans believed in Hitler right to the end. They blamed the party and all the, in their eyes, incompetent, corrupt and traitorous people around him said: "Poor Hitler, if only the people around him had supported him more."
True, without support from more than 90% of the population all this horror would have never happened. One of the key factors was political indoctrination, dissinformation, propaganda and establishment of a police state which lasted only for 12 years (1933-45). The guys born between 1922-1931 were AFAIK the worst of the indoctrinated bunch.
Now ask yourself the question. Since when is the russian population indoctrinated, dissinformed and subject to state propaganda? Since more than 23years now? Even longer because the people never learned to think in democratic terms neither under the Tzar, nor under Stalin or Sowjet era, nor later. The root of the problem will not go away with Ukraine reestablishing its borders to a pre 2014 status. It will be a generational problem lasting for decades, I fear. And I sincerely have no idea how this latent aggressive potential inbread into the psyche of russian population can be contained after war in Ukraine will be over.
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1 minute ago, danfrodo said:
OK, bradleys and leo2s are just dandy. This kind of thing is about the allies having a cohesive set of equipment to send. Things that can be maintained and can help UKR in both the short and long term. Which sounds to me like Leo2s and bradleys.
Yeah, but could also be Challenger 1s, Leopard 1s and Marders. We will see in a few days I guess.
Ukraine-Krieg: Deutsche Industrie bietet mehr als 100 Kampfpanzer für Ukraine an (handelsblatt.com)
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9 minutes ago, poesel said:
Since this thread is now 'How hot is Germany gonna get?' - well, it seems to get interesting in the ruling coalition. This is still the second rank fighting, but that usually does not happen (in the public). I guess next week, the higher ups will have to clear this up. Or not.
FYI: Scholz as chancellor can overrule every minister, but that is politically difficult for ministers of the other parties. Defense is SPD (Scholz), Foreign & Economy Green, Finance FDP (both not Scholz).https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Panzer-Debatte-treibt-einen-Keil-in-die-Ampel-article23861492.html
He already used the 2nd last option before the confidence vote, the so called "Richtlinienkompetenz - policy competence" last time to clear up the nuclear plant debate. If he has to use it again, my guess is that the coalition most likely will implode.
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/richtlinienkompetenz-101.html
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20 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
Back in the 1990s a German friend of mine, who did his time in the BW during the late 1970s, said he didn't think the Bundeswher was capable of defending Germany if there was an invasion. Sometime in the middle of von der Leyen's time a German reserves officer (LT rank, IIRC) was saying how badly prepared the Bundeswehr really was from his experiences. I mentioned that this seems to be a long term problem and his response was something like "it's never been this bad". Soon after that a series of German news articles came out into the public stating how little of the Bundeswher was capable of going to sea, getting into the air, or rolling into combat. I think things have gotten a little better, but not by much.
The debate about Germany not living up to its 2% GDP military spending was missing the point. It wasn't that the Germans are under funding their NATO commitment, they are under funding their armed forces. The two concepts are very different.
This is why I've been in favor of Germany determining how much it wants to spend on the Bundeswher, then shrinking the size of the BW to fit the budget. This is maybe not as good as raising the budget to fit the needs, but nothing is worse than having an expensive force that isn't capable of performing its job.
Steve
Yeah mid 90s (MoD Stoltenberg and Rühe, CDU) was the last time I was doing service as Officer of Reserve in my old tank bataillon in the function of Btl. S2 involving life firing with our 2A4s in Camp Merrion, Caste Martin, Wales. The problems we had back then, were mostly due to the fact that we still had to cope with the new personal structures after dissolvement of the NVA and integration of our new east german comrades and all these simulator and computer based trainings were still a new field, which the men needed to get used to.
However munition and spare parts for the Leos of the Btl. were plenty and combat readiness was not a big problem because every crew still had their own tank they cared and took responsibility for. We however already sensed that something was in the making, because allotted fuel rations for tanks were reduced and number of kilometers per track also (Kettenkilometer).
It was later then (2000s when government switched from SPD MoD Struck to CDU/CSU MoD von Guttenberg) when a rotational priciple was introduced which reduced the number of tanks in the Btl. to effectively one Coy strength which were then used by all 3 Coy to do training on. Compulsory military consription ended in 2011 and it seems to me more or less from that point on it all somehow went downhill.
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11 minutes ago, FancyCat said:
Article says there are no longer tank depots in Europe to support Abrams? What do you suppose that means?
I don´t think that reflects reality, to put it mildly.
The Army just activated its massive gear stockpile in Europe. Here's what that means - Sandboxx
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15 minutes ago, FancyCat said:
The problems described in the article referred by the tweets, had Russia not been a paper tiger, they honestly probably could have gotten to Berlin if we hand waved Poland and the Baltics and the U.S forces stationed there. Report is quite scathing.
Yes that is a true description about the sorry state of affairs the Bundeswehr has come to since the last 16 years.
This permanent power struggle has paralyzed the ministry. Because the individual areas are blocking each other, new special staffs are constantly being created at the periphery. They are supposed to solve what the apparatus is no longer capable of doing. In reality, though, they merely serve to exacerbate the ministry's dysfunctionality, which increases with each new parallel body. The ministry long ago stretched beyond its target size of 2,500 employees. Well over 3,000 people now work in the bloated ministry.
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8 minutes ago, womble said:
I'm not sure what your referring to, here. There were reports of lots of "worn out" PzH2000s at one point, but given the tempo of their operations at the time, that was hardly surprising, if solely from the point of view of barrel wear. Is there something else?
There are no problems made public due to "reasons"...
Bundeswehr-Ausstattung: Nach Puma-Panzer bereitet wohl auch Haubitze 2000 Probleme (merkur.de)
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Interesting if true. Could open up some new possibilities for the Ukrainian Army.
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7 minutes ago, Zeleban said:
What factories for the production of spare parts for Abrams tanks in Europe do you know?
Or do you think American military bases are engaged in the production of spare parts?
Not production, but that should be a secondary problem. The maintenance and training facilities in Poland are in place, if I understand this article correctly:
To prepare Polish troops to utilize the vehicle, the Abrams Tank Training Academy was established at Biedrusko Training Area in Poznań. The US Army already provided 28 Abrams tanks for the purpose.
“We are pleased to have been chosen to provide this critical armored capability to our allies in Poland,” vice president of global strategy and international business development at General Dynamics Land Systems, Chris Brown, said.
US Army Taps General Dynamics to Build 250 Abrams Tanks for Poland (thedefensepost.com)
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A picture to warm my heart:
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
If I´m not mistaken those supposed to be handed over need to be prepared and adapted for foreign usage anyways? Deinstal some high-end radio and other gear which isn´t supposed to be given to UA. I guess they´ll do that in Poland with those tanks which are already there and backfill the unit which rotates out from the depots in Darmstadt or Mannheim or Poznan?