From Harry at Sharkhunters and thanks to WIZARD!
How the mighty have fallen. Once the bulwark of NATO defense now rather enfeebled so it seems. The Bundeswehr combat capability severely degraded.
"The Bundeswehr, has access to less than 50 percent of many major weapons systems. Many primary weapons systems in the Bundeswehr are not available for training exercises or deployment. Number of weapon systems ready for action"
Items of equipment as not "ready for action" to include but not strictly limited to I might well imagine:
• Eurofighter jet airplanes: 39 of 128
• Tornado jet airplanes: 26 of 93
• CH-53 transport helicopters: 16 of 72
• NH-90 transport helicopters: 13 of 58
• Tiger helicopters: 12 of 62
• A400M transport planes: 3 of 15
• Leopard 2 tanks: 105 of 224
My thought was always the Bundeswehr was the ground component of the German military forces. But this is not so. Bundeswehr the combined and united German military, army, navy, air force and ancillary organizations.
Six of those seven items as listed pertaining to the German Air Force [Luftwaffe]. That status of the German submarine contingent already the topic of a prior blog entry.
coolbert.