poesel

She's the head of the German parliament defense committee (Verteidigungsausschuss des Deutschen Bundestages). Also in the steering committee of her party, FDP, which is part of the current government. So, not just a member of parliament, but someone with a bit of influence.

Nope - we were specifically talking about electronics. Russia's GDP is between Canada and Italy. If any of these countries would in the future only buy the electronics from China and no one else, that would create some local turbulences but no long term adverse effects globally. That is the point I wanted to make here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) The trade between the USA & Canada is a bad comparison, because that is a huge volume. Only topped by the USA & China, and then China is just slightly bigger than Canada. Russia has no one with that kind of deep relationship.

Don't forget that Russia's economy is about the size of Canada (well, used to be). Not slight to the Canadians, but if either of them would decide to buy only Chinese electronics from now on, that wouldn't make a blip on the world market. The danger is more political if Russia would become a satellite of China. I'm sorry, but I instantly thought of the Judean people's front and the people's front of Judea. I didn't vote for neither and I shouldn't comment on such trollbait, but that is simply ridiculous. Next, he's responsible for bad weather or sour milk? If you haven't slept through this thread, you have read all the reasons why stuff is why it is wrt Germany.

You are totally right. I glossed over this a bit. There was a contract and a need and that outweighed morals. The reasoning then was that Russia couldn't buy anything useful at this point, and it would hurt us more than them. Not our finest hour. When NS blew up, it was relief of some sort. If you go 'cui bono' you need to put Germany on that list, too. Technically, that part of NS belongs to Russia. Only the part in German waters belongs to Germany. So Russia would have to repair it. Although such things are usually done inside a bigger deal. Maybe sometime in the future, H2 from the wind farms in the country of Siberia will flow through it...

One, German industry is not built on Russian gas. It is built on cheap energy which is often gas, which often came from Russia. Now we import 0% Russian gas and the industry is still working. Then, Russian gas was out on February 25th. That was a political decision and there is no way back. Except maybe to pay for Russian reparations to Ukraine when the war is over. The most convincing theory is IMO that Putin burned the bridges behind him with that. To kill any chance of disposing of him, retreating from Ukraine and buying the way out with gas.

Please don't. It is the second most interesting topic for me in this thread!

That is about 0 °C in non-retarded units.

You are right. It was meant ironical. We have more than the 18 Marders in store than we need to replace the Pumas. With the Austrians, I'm not so sure Again, you are totally right. Ukraine is defending the rest of Europe against the Russians, and we should be much more grateful for that. But this is (as everything) a thing of subjective perception. Many Germans share my view of things, but also many don't. We are split roughly in half over this, and that is reflected in the behavior of our politicians, who also don't have a clear path. This is a bit cynical, but winter might help here. Stories about freezing children or old people in Ukraine seem to crop up more and more in the mass media. This might help to bring over those in camp caution.

Just a bit... Since the Pumas won't be repaired until April '23, we will have to use Marders for our NATO obligations. Now you know why we don't give them to Ukraine. If you needed to know how ****ed up the Bundeswehr is - now you do.

Rheinmetall will start a production line for 20-35 mm ammunition in Germany. That includes ammo for the Gepard. Production will start in July '23. https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/rheinmetall-munition-ukraine-krieg-russland-100.html#xtor=CS5-62

I haven't said that. Every weapons export needs a permit from the government. Hence, each weapons export is a political decision. Yes, and the reason is (mostly) domestic policy, not economic reason. That is my point. Every so often, it comes up here that the behavior of the German government in this respect is market driven. It is not, the Russian market is dead for the foreseeable future. The Greens are in majority FOR exports, while the SPD (the chancellors party) is in majority AGAINST weapons exports. (both parties (and a third, FDP, also pro-export) form the current government). Which proves my point Many people in Germany and especially many people in the SPD support the no-export course. That is the reason why we don't do it. I don't have anything else to add to this point, so I'll shut up before I bore you to death with German Politik. I'll keep you informed if anything meaningful happens here.

Rheinmetall is doing quite well, and of course they can sell out-country. They just need a permit. But the wellbeing of Rheinmetall is not an important issue for the chancellor - weapons make only a tiny percentage of our exports. What the fuss is about the Marders and Leo1s I don't understand. It's 70s tech and could be rebranded as 'old' or 'light tank by current standards' (in the case of the Leo1). But they don't want to. Ukraine should really rather spend their energy on pestering the UK or France for a handful of halfway modern tanks. If they get delivered or even promised, it would be very, very, very hard for the chancellor to paddle back behind his 'the others don't, why should we?' posture. IMHO the Leo1 would make much more sense for the UA. A lighter tank on par in weight with the T-72. Older but simpler for maintenance. Less armor, yes, but haven't we just learned that armor doesn't help much currently anyway? We have some in stock, and Greece even has more in use. They would part with them happily for Leo2s. Would also send a nice sign to Turkey. Win-win.

I've said it several times, but I will repeat it as often as necessary: this is all about domestic policy. There is a strong group of 'weapon exports are bad always no matter what' in the party of the chancellor. He's not doing that well in the polls, so he won't aggravate this group - unless someone else exports modern, heavy tanks first OR it is done in a group thing (EU or NATO). A PzH is not at the front. Low chance of being destroyed or, worse, being captured. The Russians would loooove to parade a German tank over the Red Square. That would 24/7 in Russian TV. Not a win for a German politician. Also, a PzH is not a tank... yeah.

You are very right here. I was always wondering why your ambassadors weren't playing that card. In public use, the 'Soviets' were always 'Russians'. So Russia has inherited all the guilt we have from WWII, but neither has Belarus nor Ukraine. That is a piece of history that is not well known here. A little bit of reframing would have gone a long way to gain more public support. A missed chance, IMHO. Russia had 2.3% of our foreign trade in '21 and the number was already declining. So not a big market, but neither unimportant. Being so dependent on Russian oil & gas was a mixture of stupidity and greed. It could have been avoided, and now we pay for it. The neglect of Ukraine goes together with the general neglect of Germany towards eastern European countries, nothing special, unfortunately. That stems from the time of the reunification. Eastern Germany was well integrated in the East, but was more or less disposed of. Western Germany was always looking West, and that attitude survived until now. No, that's not it. The Russian market is dead for the foreseeable future. The real reason is purely domestic policy. There are still a lot of people who think that delivering weapons is always a bad thing and will lead to more suffering (not my opinion). Unfortunately, this feeling is especially strong in the supporters of the chancellors party. He cannot risk the support of those people. There will be no delivery of tanks from Germany unless there is a strong push from other European/NATO countries to deliver them together. And Germany will be the last to jump on that train, and only if it is unavoidable. If you want German tanks, get some from the French, the UK, the USA first. Sorry, but that is how it is.

AFAIK they tried to talk to the Russians but got no answer. You can think what you like, that is no treason. But if you refrain from paying speeding tickets because you deny the existence of the state that issued said ticket - then you are in trouble. And yes, that really happened.

First, I need to explain, who these guys are. A "Reichsbürger" (translates to 'citizen of the (Kaiser)Reich') is someone who does deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany. Instead, they believe that the Kaiserreich still exists. There's some quite funny legalese reasoning to explain this. They wanted to topple the government and even had some old royal descendant who would then become Kaiser(?). There is no connection to the Reichstag which is just the building of the parliament. The round-up is the biggest ever here, even bigger than the ones we had against the left-wing terrorists in the 70s. It is of course all over the news here. How dangerous is this group? Depends on the scope. As a group to Germany itself, not so much. They have no backing in the population, and their plans are just delusional. As individuals who cause acts of terrorism, more likely. They had the skills and the means. The whole thing is bizarre, but unfortunately not the funny kind. I'm very happy that the state caught this group before something happened.

Interesting article about Belarus and Luka and how he maneuvered through this (in German). In that article is stated that 50% of Belarus population support the war. That supports what Kraze said above. https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Stellt-Lukaschenko-Putin-eine-Falle-article23755467.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-de-DE

Don't read too much into it. That is actually not "new" news (at least here). The procurement of the Bundeswehr (the "BAAINBw" - Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr) is just a total **** up. They are simply not able to spend all that money. Our minister of defense is also not the best suited for the job (to put it mildly). But at least she is moving stuff in the right direction, though not with the right speed. The money has been agreed upon and is through the Bundestag. It is bookmarked for the Bundeswehr and can't be used otherwise. So that is not weaseling out, just incompetence.

I do enjoy reading SciFi from different ages and places. It tells you a lot about what people thought were their future from their time on. But more interesting is that combined with the nationality of the writer. Makes a huge difference between U.S. Americans (which most stuff originates) and Russian, Polish, German, Italian or Scottish authors. I guess there is probably a branch of literature that just does these comparisons. FWIW I enjoyed reading T3BP even with all its flaws. Most SF has one or the other flaw, and in this case the novelty of the story and setting outweighs the rest IMHO.

The development of the Gepard started in the 60s, and it was first deployed in the mid 70s. The version A2 (the one in Ukraine) was equipped with digital computers in the 80s. Before that, everything was analog - the wet dream of every electrical engineer! So, restarting the production of the Gepard makes no sense - neither parts nor knowledge are available. However, the idea of the Gepard seems to make sense again. Maybe not on track, but a lighter version on wheels. Radar and fire control should now be much cheaper than in the 70s (relatively speaking - when the Gepard came out it cost about 4x that of a Leopard 1).

Right at the end, the Gepard shoots a few rounds in the ground. Looks like the target radar was still following the downed missile and the operator was still pulling the trigger But happy to finally see the Gepard in action!

When Putin falls, Lukashenko will switch sides as fast as lightning. He will try to broker a deal for him and his cronies for a get-out-of-jail card for giving over Belarus peacefully to the opposition. Luka is a very, very good politician. Someone of lesser skill would have been ousted long ago. So I guess he will try everything to avoid sinking together with his regime. For that purpose, he needs to stay out of anything 'unforgivable' by the West. Which means that Belarus will not attack Ukraine because that would tie him to Putin forever.

PVC is only rated down to 0°, and that is the kind of cheap material you would use in suicide drones - if your target area is a warm climate. If they did not specify that, then I guess they will also have problems with the motor. A small air-cooled combustion engine has essential parts that don't like to be frozen.

Slovakia delivers 30 BMP-1 in exchange for 15 Leo A2s

Germany has offered Poland patriot missile systems, but Poland declined and suggested to station them in Ukraine: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-asks-germany-to-send-patriot-missiles-to-ukraine/a-63877843?maca=en-GK_RSS_SmartNews_Volltext_ENG-20051-xml-media Our minister of defense then said we had to consult with NATO, which was immediately answered by Stoltenberg that this is Germany's decision. Obviously, Germany cannot station a patriot system in Ukraine, only deliver it. How long would it take to train the Ukrainians on that system?