Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Also, where is the evidence that Airbus altered a military procurement RFI? That would be a pretty big scandal.

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Planeflyer wrote:

Nonsense, the only category it is superior is as a target drone.

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

That the politicians do not want. If operational capability would matter, Germany would buy 200 new F-35 to replace both obsolete systems, but operational capability does not matter. Repeating this argument sounds like whining and doesn’t make it true. The Eurofighter is the superior aircraft in cr...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

I personally think that political realities rule out the F-35 (a real theoretical first strike capability is bad- especially with Germany completely in control by left wing parties) and financial realities will rule out a fighter buy completely in the end, as the economy is falling into a recession...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bundeswehr-kampfjet-f-18-eurofighter-1.4625463 It seems like, that Germany has to buy the F/A-18 to keep the nuclear capability. The certification of the Eurofighter will take too long. Which is in my opinion not very surprising. I guess at the end they will buy ...

Re: Readiness Level of German Luftwaffe (Air Force)

Summary of this year's report: - Average readiness of 70% - Most systems have improved readiness, despite increased deployments. Particularly GTK Boxer and A400M have seen improvements in both readiness and capability. - CH-53, Tornado and U-Boats are the most critical systems - The units that are ...

Re: Germany proposes joint European aircraft carrier

And how are they not fixing it? If you buy something that’s broken you return it. That’s what the German navy did according to the 2017 article you linked. Weel of course they are going to do that. However with all the problems the German Navy is having I think their funds should be used to fix tho...

Re: A400M Update Thread 2019

German and British AF trained together as part of the handover of the Baltic Air Policing. The training included re-fueling of British Eurofighters using a German A400M:

Re: A400M Update Thread 2019

The Luftwaffe is using an A400M for Angela Merkel's West Africa trip. She's had stops in Ougadougou, Niamey, and Bamako but the A400M was necessary for landing in Goa in northern Mali when she visited Bundeswehr troops there. https://i0.gmx.net/image/480/33722480,pd=1/chancellor-merkel-africa.jpg

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

I sometimes also wonder why the SPD and the majority of Germans are against these exports to Saudi Arabia. Then the news comes on and shows the atrocities and suffering in Yemen and I know why. @Ozair: the article you quoted is from a guy who you claimed "has a good habit of not actually logica...

Re: Germany proposes joint European aircraft carrier

They might want to fix the issues the German Navy currently has first. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17185/the-german-navy-has-decided-to-return-their-new-frigate-to-the-ship-store-this-christmas And how are they not fixing it? If you buy something that’s broken you return it. That’s what t...

Re: Germany proposes joint European aircraft carrier

Planeflyer wrote:

...
Trump is calling for a stronger NATO.
...

Re: Germany proposes joint European aircraft carrier

Norway alo has a brand New replenishment ship: HNoMS Maud https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Knm_muad.jpg The suggestion made by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer intended the aircraft carrier to be a joint EU project. Though the German and Norwegian navys are cooperating on multiple leve...

Re: Luftwaffe A350 Production/Delivery Thread - 2019-2022

Is this is so they can claim they are upping their defence spending?! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk No need to “claim” that. It’s a fact that Germany has increased defense spending every year since 2015 and yep, this will be part of the math though it won’t make much of a difference. My advise...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

No, for Germany it would mean "They cannot mobilize more than 8000 men and 96% of the aircraft are unflyable." Seems to me the F-18 with a support contract to Boeing would be advantageous then. At least with Boeing maintaining the airplains, the frames would at least be combat ready. Avai...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

On a serious note, the average German almost certainly doesn’t have any idea of the F-35 and Super Hornet, they will likely both simply be seen as US aircraft that aren’t made in Germany and there would be no difference politically acquiring one over the other. I’d almost go as far as to say dress ...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Yes, announcing the possibility of an F-35 purchase at this point is likely considered to be the riskier move politically. I can only speculate why. Perhaps because it would cause a greater media reaction (in Germany, France, and the US) and Merkel’s and vdL’s advisors may pursue the strategy of kee...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

A not unexpected decision to pursue the Eurofighter but the decision to short list the Super Hornet probably wasn’t done with any serious consideration. The current nuclear weapon being rolled out is the B61-12 which was trialled on the Tornado but as far as I am aware is not slated for integration...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

As I predicted a couple of months ago, government coalition party SPD just published a statement that they intend to block any purchase from a US manufacturer: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ruestungspolitik-die-spd-will-nicht-bei-trump-kaufen-1.4311002

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

The BMVg just announced what they had initially planned to announce in December. The replacement for 85 Panavia Tornados that are still in use will either be the Eurofighter or the F/A-18. This means that the F-35 is not being considered anymore. Separately, the Bundewehr is planning to replace 33 o...

German AF H145M used to trigger controlled avalanches

I couldn't find a thread for the Bundeswehr's recent procurement of the H145M. Maybe there isn't one because it was on time and within costs. The helicopter was in the news in Germany this weekend because it was used by the Bundeswehr to set of avalanches in Bavaria. The region has seen an unusual a...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Let's do shots every time Planeflyer says "contested environment" ;) Here is a hypothetical I was thinking about today: let's say Germany decides that it is indeed really important to get a bunch of F-35s to have the ability to drop bombs on Russian soil and let's also make the wild assump...

Re: Merkel's A343 diverts to CGN

The 7 aircrafts of the German government white fleet had 16 non-take offs out of 5200 flights over the past 2 years. (source: today's government press conference). While the Luftwaffe should always work towards lowering that number further, it's not as scandalous as some people on this thread want i...

Re: Merkel's A343 diverts to CGN

German AF investments have been wholly inadequate, it would appear, across the spectrum of missions. I’d pity Merkel were she not largely responsible for the decisions. Your post is a great example of unsubstantiated bashing. What investments would you have liked to see when and into which type of ...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Clearly the US isn’t opposed to a non US plane carrying B-61s given the Tornado carries it today. It was a different time when that decision was made. The playbook of this and recent US governments has been to advance the interests of their domestic defense industry when these types of decisions we...

Re: Germany Considers Tornado Replacement

Next steps on Tornado replacement to be announced by the BMVG before the end of the year: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-military-fighter/germany-sees-next-step-on-fighter-jet-replacement-by-end-of-year-idUKKCN1NR1SZ That’s much sooner than what I would have expected. I expected them to w...