Aptly named brigade then.

Yes, I don't think we want the 'hard' Germans again please.

Yah, Vlad doesn’t want that either.

Tornado fleet temporarily grounded...
 

:ooh:

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/germ...iodiesel-fuel/

-RP

Germany fears steeper Tornado costs after the UK ditches its planes

COLOGNE, Germany – The planned phasing out of the United Kingdom’s last Tornado aircraft has German officials scrambling to deal with the increasing costs of a shrinking fleet.

Continuing aircraft reductions in the tri-national program, which also includes Italy, have led to “significant technical, logistical and financial risk” in maintaining the 1980s-era fighter-bombers, officials have told lawmakers in a confidential report seen by Defense News. While the prospect of Britain’s exit from the aircraft program has been known since November 2016, there is “no sufficient and comprehensive planning in place” for sustaining the remaining German planes, the report warns.......

The defense ministry’s March 2018 report leaves open the question of how, and if, the UK would retain some kind of role in the program. Last November, the document states, there was talk about introducing a new, fixed scheme for financial contributions, abandoning the practice of going by the number of airframes used in each nation. German defense officials wrote that they also are unsure what financial contributions can be expected of the Italians before Rome retires its Tornado contingent in 2027.....

“The UK has a large number of airframes left in storage in a variety of conditions and including various degrees of upgrades between GR.1 and the latest GR.4 ‘diamond standard’ as flown over Iraq and Syria,” said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. “These will be a very valuable source of spare parts and consumables for the Luftwaffe Tornado force once the Royal Air Force has fully retired the type,” he added. “Since the Tornado manufacturing lines have long since closed, spare parts are expensive and often time consuming to procure, so Germany will no doubt appreciate access to the RAF’s stock of frontline and reserve airframes to cannibalise.”.....

Not if the RAF gets a far better deal from the Saudi's

That's what keeps pprune going, a sense of humour.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/g...anks-wsxmfqzzl

German soldiers told to pretend that cars are tanks

The German army is so short of tanks it is using cars in exercises and telling troops to pretend they are jumping out of a tank.

The defence ministry confirmed that troops were using “other vehicles to practise mounting and dismounting” to cope with a shortage of working Puma infantry fighting vehicles. Bild reported that the use of cars was part of what the military called alternative solutions to the lack of working Pumas for training.

The case echoes an incident in which German troops on a Nato exercise in Norway in 2014 had to use a broomstick painted black to simulate a missing gun on a GTK Boxer armoured fighting vehicle.

The ministry said that it was “not satisfied” with the operational readiness of the Puma, a prestige project for the defence industry. Bild said that only about 20 per cent of the Pumas allocated to five of the army’s mechanised infantry battalions were in working order. Internal papers blamed the shortage on a lack of spare parts and slow maintenance. It could worsen in 2023 and 2024 when about 100 Pumas will be in workshops for long-planned refits.

The Bundeswehr has ordered 350 Pumas, described in Germany as the world’s most advanced infantry fighting vehicle, to replace its ageing Marder tanks.

Germany has long been criticised by its Nato allies for not spending enough on defence. Successive governments slashed defence spending after the Cold War and troops have been complaining about shortages for years.

Task Force Schmidt in the making.

So if I've got this right, we're leaving the EU, but some would have us recreate BAOR (only probably in Poland), because the richest economy in Europe can't be @rsed to fund its own army.

Right.......

I'd rather they stiffened up a bit, so "harder than lately" would not be a bad idea without going for full tungsten carbide.