They're Reading The Blog Over In Germany -- LOL -- February 27, 2018

This is really quite incredible. Someone in NATO must be reading the blog. Just ten days ago I posted a long note about military expenditures. I was surprised how much Saudi Arabia spent on defense spending and absolutely aghast to see how little Germany spent on defense. From that post:

What about Germany? Germany is #9 on the "money" list, spending less than even France, the UK, or Japan. But wow, look at this: based on GDP ranking, it would be ranked #19 on the list of the top 20 countries. No wonder Bernie and Trump are so mad.

Only Canada, coming in last, spends less on a GDP basis. From the bottom up:

• Canada's military defense spending: 1.0%
• Germany (less than Brazil): 1.2%
• Spain: 1.2%
• Brazil: 1.3%
• Italy: 1.5%

Now, today, from channelnewsasis.com this incredible story: less than half -- again, less than half -- of German submarines and warplanes are ready for use.  Not 1% or 5% or 10% but fully half of German submarines and warplanes are not ready for use. In the US, military commanders would be fired if even 10% of their command was unprepared for their mission. From the linked article:

Missing spare parts and quality defects at a time of increased operations mean less than half of Germany's submarines, warplanes and some other key weapons are ready for use, according to a government report on Tuesday.

The defence ministry delivered a 106-page report about the still "unsatisfactory readiness" of many key weapons systems to parliament on Monday, amid growing public outcry about the military's failure to get a handle on the issue.

It confirmed the gist of a parliamentary report released last week that cited big, persistent gaps in military personnel and equipment.

The report said readiness was improving slowly, with 550 more weapons available in 2017 than in 2014. But more time and money were needed to recover from decades of spending cuts.

Wow! What can I say? Absolutely incredible. But because the situation is actually "improving" and it appears they are using the word loosely, nothing will be done. I doubt Angela Merkel has even read the full report -- perhaps the executive summary and that would be it.