Originally Posted by
Less Hair
It would be better to find out why strategic assessments and arms programs went so wrong and who was behind it. Defence budgets were on record levels for years so it was not any lack of funding to blame. What they had was just not well spent.
Because like so many European states, they were determined to have their own world leading tech but werent big enough to actually invest enough. The Uk had to spend a lot harder to get its worth, and had a long track record with good ties to the USA. Germany, less so. When it comes to incubators, high tech, C4I, SigInt etc where high technology startups require an open investment culture, Germany isnt it. They have great lumps of metal but Silicon valley they are are not. If I recall it correctly, Germany only tried a couple of years ago to create a culture of silicon valley. I am sure the reasons are complex but their abhorrence of entrepreneurship without union control probably played a part in people not wanting to start anything up. Anyone wanting to do a start up, left the country.
The so-called EU Army is/was really a mechanism to divert even more EU funds into their military firms as they knew they couldnt get enough past the beancounters directly so they tried to split the money into the local funds plus 'EU Army funds'. At least the French were willing to export widely wheres my impression is that Germany didnt like to. Dealing with KMW on a certain overseas deal was interesting as they went into it with eyes firmly shut and I would be very surprised if they actually made any money on it.