An Eurofighter jet taxis at German Air Force base near Cologne, March 21, 2016 / Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters
DW: Only 4 of Germany's 128 Eurofighter jets combat ready — report
The report is the latest to cast doubt on Germany's military capabilities and readiness. It raises questions of whether Germany is really meeting its NATO commitments.
Only a handful of the German Air Force's Eurofighter jets are combat ready, according to a report in the magazine Der Spiegel published Wednesday.
Due to a technical problem with the defense system of the combat aircraft only 10 of the Luftwaffe's 128 Eurofighters are mission ready, according to the report.
The problem stems from a cooling liquid leak in the aircraft's wing pod sensors, which are used to recognize hostile jets or incoming attacks. Without the defense system the Eurofighter jets are not combat ready.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Cough .... cough. At least they have four that are working.
More News On The The German Airforce Only Having Four Combat-Ready Eurofighter Typhoons Out Of A Fleet Of 128
Luftwaffe 'down to four' combat-ready Eurofighters out of 128, as pressure builds over weak defence spending -- The Telegraph
Germany has only 4 combat-ready Eurofighter jets, report says -- Daily Sabah/DPA
Germany confident Eurofighter supplier issue can be resolved soon -- Reuters
Only 4 of Germany’s 128 Eurofighter Typhoon jets ‘ready for combat’ – report -- RT
Report says majority of German "Eurofighter" jets unsuitable for military use -- Xinhua
9 comments:
FT has a good article on this:
"Donald Trump has insisted Germany live up to its Nato commitment to spend 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. But it will fall far short of that target, at least during the current parliament.
Defence spending as a proportion of gross domestic product is set to declinefrom 2019. Figures from the defence ministry show that it will reach 1.3 per cent of GDP next year and then gradually tail off to 1.23 per cent by 2022.
The dilemma for Germany is that, with the economy continuing to grow strongly, it will have to spend billions more on its armed forces to meet the Nato target. Last year Sigmar Gabriel, the foreign minister at the time, argued that Berlin would have to spend €70bn a year on defence to reach the 2 per cent goal — almost double its military budget for 2017."
With Russia threatening the Baltics, building a vast base at Kaliningrad including INF busting theater missiles and S-400 area denial missiles which can cover parts of Germany, one would think Germany would urgently address its deficiencies.
Yet year after year stories like this come out showing Germany has essentially disarmed and has no intention to rectify its situation. So Germany really doesn't care about NATO's "one for all and all for one" defense arrangement. Her conduct tells me that NATO's importance to Germany extends only to what the US does for it. Otherwise Germany doesn't see it as a priority. Certainly the SPD has been on record saying it will never tolerate 2% GDP on defense, now or by 2024.
This is why Trump bashes Germany, they care far more about their trade surplus's than adequate defense.
One minute it's 4 then it's 10, by next week it will be 60
Germany's economy is doing so well it'd have to spend as much as Russia(!), ie about 70bn/year to meet it's 2% nato gdp spending goals - see Financial times article today. And Germans have only a few working planes at the moment. Funny how this doesn't make any sense. Wtf is going on? Current spending is about 1.3% so about half. Spending twice as much and suddenly Germans go from 4 planes to several hundred (Russia), thousands of tanks, a twenty times larger standing army and nukes? Ok of course it take some time but this doesn't make sense. Russian military spends only 60bn and could easily invade deep into Europe and Europe spends much much more and where does it go? And now spend more still? That's why europeans don't like spending on military. They see it as a money scheme for the military complex. Russia will not invade because they could never truly conquer and control Europeans for long. And Europe has some nukes too...so why spend another 30 billion if the first 3p only get you 4 planes? And don't start with economies of scale please. This doesn't add up.
Anon # 2,
You are pretty much spot on. It clearly seems to me Germany is not a worthy ally and is a net drain. They are one of many who need to be jettisoned. Obviously when we are invaded they can't and won't help us. Essentially we are their chumps. They don't respect us.
Anon (last post),
I've pretty much made the same observations regarding military spending. It doesn't tell us nearly as much as the pundits would have us believe it does ad to how nations stack up against each other militarily.
Germany is not respecting it's signature, even having a huge budget surplus. Lets this country out of NATO.
I didn't mean they don't respect the US. I know they do, because most Germans love and respect Americans. Your statement is again to promote Russian interest by weakening European and US relations. Forget it. .it's pathetic and transparent what you're doing for as long as I've been talking to you on this blog. ..we get it, you love Russia. Get over it. My point was that Germany has valid and sincere disbelief that spending another 30bn annually will indeed make a real difference, other than an increasing an already dangerous and bloated military industrial complex. Germany seeks peace. I've been there many, many times and know many Germans personally and through business. No chance your points are an accurate reflection. propaganda BS as always. The reality is that Germany is committed to the US partnership but it's a partnership. So they need to evaluate if this makes really sense, and I'd agree, it doesn't, on first sight. The problem is this: the EU sees that they're already spending much more on military than Russia or any other realistic near term threat. Doubling(!) spending, which would be required in the case of Germany to keep up with its quickly growing economy (dwarfing Russia - which has bigger population and the biggest land on earth/natural resources by the way, so you should stay humble with your Russia superiority propaganda, respectfully..they're not that efficient as Germans lol)..BUT as I said, and as Germany's latest move to increase spending on request of Trump shows, they're committed. So good look with your narrative. All I said was they have valid reasons to hesitate.
This is proof that Herr Merkel is an unreliable ally>
Dwarfing Russia is a meaningless phrase.
Dwarfing spending or actual military might of a larger country does not mean that you are a warmonger.
It might mean that the larger country is poorly run by an oligarchy.
I bet the Chinese spent more on their military than the Japanese in 1895, but they still got their asses handed to them in 1895.
The defeat on large part has been attributed to corruption and mismanagement by a few, an oligarchy.
What do we have in Russia? An oligarchy.
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