I haven't been back since Ex Lionheart (86?)Have you been to Germany in the last 25 years? There are so many wind turbines I am sometimes surprised it doesn't take off.
I haven't been back since Ex Lionheart (86?)Have you been to Germany in the last 25 years? There are so many wind turbines I am sometimes surprised it doesn't take off.
1984, what a hoot.I haven't been back since Ex Lionheart (86?)
And soon after the DDR was pointing former German soldiers towards the west. One of the highest ranking members of the DDR government, Willi Stoph, despite joining the Communist party at 17 joined the Wehrmacht at the age of 21 and served from 1935-37 and again from 1940 to 1945 serving as an Unteroffizer in the Artillery on the Russian Front.10 years and then with marked reluctance. It was considered a pragmatic option given allied post war draw downs
If you look more closely at the "EU" and "World" totals in the table you will see that they are not part of the ranking. They are additional reference points, but there is no double counting there.@terminal , they’ve done it again The EU consists of Italy and Germany, so deduct 169,830 from EU Total or deduct Germany and Italy. Always bloody selective with their stats
See the following news story.Many things you say are absolutely right.
There will also be no simple solution to the problem. The current situation is that Germany gets around 40% of its gas via the existing Transgas and Nord Stream pipelines.
To add Nord Stream 2 on top of that and make Germany even more dependent on Russian gas supplies is sheer madness.
The Baltic pipe has also been opposed by Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia -- countries between Russia and Germany that collect transit fees on gas flowing through their territories. Those concerns were partially alleviated after Gazprom reached a deal to continue gas transits via Ukraine through at least 2024.
But as Russia has moved closer to completing a second underwater gas pipeline project to feed Germany, known as Nord Stream 2, Ukraine's role as a vital gas-transit country for Europe has been imperiled.
Russia has 10 percent left to complete the 2,460-kilometer pipeline project, which would in effect dispose of Ukraine's transmission network.
In the early 1990s, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus as independent states, over 90% of Russian gas exports to Europe were delivered via Ukraine. This was a legacy of gas production in western Ukraine providing the source of early Soviet exports to Europe, and that pipeline infrastructure continued to serve as the conduit for Soviet exports even after the majority of Soviet gas production had shifted to north-western Siberia. In the post-Soviet period, although Ukraine remained the single largest export route, Gazprom pursued several projects to reduce its dependence on Ukrainian transit, including the Yamal-Europe pipeline (to Germany via Belarus and Poland), the Blue Stream pipeline (direct from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea), and, of course, Nord Stream (direct from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea).
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In this way, the use of Nord Stream 2 and EUGAL at their full capacities could displace much of the Ukrainian gas transit that reaches the European market via Uzhgorod/Velké Kapušany from mid-2021 March2020: Implications of the Russia-Ukraine gas transit deal for alternative pipeline routes and the Ukrainian and European marketat the earliest and the end of 2021 at the latest. Compared to the 45 bcma exit capacity of EUGAL on the German-Czech border, gas flows from Ukraine into Slovakia at Uzhgorod/Velké Kapušany ranged from 48 to 56 bcma in 2017-2019.
Back in the first article again, cold weather in Asia caused LNG cargoes to be re-routed from Europe to the Far East. Japan and South Korea simply outbid the EU for LNG. This in turn caused gas shortages in Europe. This will happen every time there is a supply or demand problem if the EU become completely dependent upon LNG for imports.Especially since Russia has already taken the gas weapon out of the holster this winter. While the NS2 discussion reached new heights, significantly less gas was delivered to the storage facilities than in previous years. The result was that German gas storage was only 41% full, as opposed to the usual >80%.
Freezing temperatures in Asia at the start of 2021 pulled cargoes to the higher-priced markets from Japan to South Korea, leaving Europe largely short of LNG.
In my view, the only way to guarantee security of supply is diversification.
If that means building one or more LNG terminals, go ahead. LNG is a bit more expensive, but the fact that artificially high energy prices do not bother the government and a good part of the population in Germany is nothing new.
So in addition to the seven options you mentioned, there is an eighth: Buy LNG from other suppliers such as the US, Algeria, the Gulf region or Nigeria, and don't put all your eggs in one basket. Especially if you are dealing with a rather aggressive country that tries to revise the events of the last 30 years with war.
I wonder if the Germans will start to change their minds when they start to freeze their balls off like the people of Texas are doing at the moment.One is that the German government are facing a lot of environmental opposition within Germany to LNG imports. Part of this is due to climate change activists who don't want any gas imports. Part of it is due to anti-fracking activists (who overlap a lot with the climate change activists) who don't like the idea that any significant new supplies of gas outside of the big 4 (Russia, Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan) will be produced by fracking.
I can't answer that one, as I still can't fathom why the Germans are shutting down their nuclear power plants.I wonder if the Germans will start to change their minds when they start to freeze their balls off like the people of Texas are doing at the moment.
I can't answer that one, as I still can't fathom why the Germans are shutting down their nuclear power plants.
I can't answer that one, as I still can't fathom why the Germans are shutting down their nuclear power plants.
Yet to me, why would that be unusual? When you were called up or joined the Military it was not essential to be a member of the NS Party and communists certainly served in the military. It didn't imply one didn't do what was lawfully required. Certainly in the lower grades it didn't matter- the distinction is only made postwar after the NS had been "cleansed" and the communists had become the enemy. Plus it's factional, not all communists were Stalinists. Think of how many factions the Labour party have who consider themselves at loggerheads with class traitors.And soon after the DDR was pointing former German soldiers towards the west. One of the highest ranking members of the DDR government, Willi Stoph, despite joining the Communist party at 17 joined the Wehrmacht at the age of 21 and served from 1935-37 and again from 1940 to 1945 serving as an Unteroffizer in the Artillery on the Russian Front.
As the first Defence Minister of the DDR (1956 to 1960), he was awarded the rank of Armeegeneral.
But Stoph was not what he seemed: for after the GDR caved in, in late 1989, it emerged that he had plotted during the preceding 10 years or so with Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi security police, to overthrow Honecker and take over the GDR. It also emerged that he had an appetite for luxurious living, and even that he had been for a time a loyal Nazi.
It was Honecker who revived the idea of Stoph's possible Nazism. In 1945, he claimed in 1989, Stoph, who had won the Iron Cross in the Wehrmacht, had written for his regiment's newspaper that one of his greatest experiences had been participation in a military parade for Hitler's birthday.
Willi Stoph.
I'm sorry I beg to differ, I have noted no disambiguation in the tables shown and in the top example the figures were from 2010/11 estimates, when we were in the EU. The EU does not import, the MS do, thus the EU figure distorts overall demand.If you look more closely at the "EU" and "World" totals in the table you will see that they are not part of the ranking. They are additional reference points, but there is no double counting there.
Apparently the contract was taken from Haenel due to patent issues. Haenel think they can get the patent claims tossed eventually, but it's a European patent so the German court has to just accept it for now.So finally HK 416A8 it is for the BW
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HK416 A8 wird System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr – BMVg will Auftrag an Heckler & Koch vergeben
Das Bundesministerium der Verteidigung will den zunächst siegreichen Bieter Haenel vom Verfahren zur Vergabe eines neuen Sturmgewehres ausschließen und den Zuschlag dem Konkurrenten Heckler & Koch erteilen.soldat-und-technik.de
The decision is based on patent infringements by Haenel. According to Tauber, after it was determined that one of the bidders may have infringed the patents of another bidder, the procedure for procuring a new assault rifle was reverted to the status of the bid evaluation. This was followed by a patent law assessment by an external patent law firm.
"As a result, according to the assessment of the experts, there are patent infringements with regard to the over-the-beach capability of the weapon locking system and with regard to the magazine," said the press release. The bidder - Haenel - filed a nullity action with the Federal Patent Court against one of the patents, which the commissioned patent attorney believed had a chance of success.
"But since it is a European patent and the Federal Patent Court could only determine the patent's invalidity for Germany, the patent would continue to apply in the other European countries until it is declared null and void there," writes the State Secretary.
The only question is when the contract can be signed. Should Haenel exhaust the legal action, this would delay the proceedings considerably - possibly by years.
Originally, it was planned to begin field testing for the individual variants (short and long barrel) of the new assault rifle around six months after the contract was signed. The tests should then be completed after about a year. Almost one and a half to two years after the contract was signed, the first of the 118,718 assault rifles ordered should then come into the force. The total time for the changeover of the weapons was supposed to take more than half a decade, as the invitation to tender provided for an annual delivery volume of up to 20,000 rifles.
KSKThe KSK's soul searching goes on...now in the medical domain....
KSK elite unit only partially operational - soldiers suffer from mental disorders
According to a report by the news magazine FOCUS, the special forces command of the Bundeswehr is currently only partially operational due to numerous reports of illness.
80 of the 280 commandos trained in the fight against terrorism are in long-term psychiatric and psychological therapy because of mental disorders.
This is reported by the news magazine FOCUS. Some of the elite fighters are cared for in the Bundeswehr hospital in Ulm, others take outpatient help.
A treating specialist in psychiatry told the Berlin news magazine that a large number of the sick soldiers suffered from the mental disorder “moral injury”.
This technical term, which originates from Anglo-Saxon military medicine, describes, among other things, the loss of moral identity, caused by constant accusations from the public and the withdrawal of confidence from military superiors.
The trigger was investigations against individual KSK soldiers
The trigger for the nervous crisis at the KSK is apparently investigations into individual soldiers who had been noticed because of right-wing extremist activities. In public, however, the entire elite association is suspected of being right-wing extremists, said the specialist.
Eliteeinheit KSK nur bedingt einsatzbereit - Soldaten leiden an psychischen Störungen
Which really leaves france going P8 or P1 as wellGermany is ordering 5 P-8 MPAs.
This very likely signs the death of the MAWS program between France and Germany.
Excellent news as far as I am concerned, it's time the charade of French-German cooperation comes to an end, there is absolutely nothing solid in it.
Which really leaves france going P8 or P1 as well
I do not think the numbers would support a European airframe derived ** solo effort for high end ASW nor do I think C295 / ATR derived platforms would offer what France needs
**Also having bailed on MAWS it would I suspect stick in Frances craw that Germany (courtesy of Airbus Deutschland) would gain financialy on the project without contributing to development or purchasing the end result
I would never have thought it, but for once I agree with you.Germany is ordering 5 P-8 MPAs.
This very likely signs the death of the MAWS program between France and Germany.
Excellent news as far as I am concerned, it's time the charade of French-German cooperation comes to an end, there is absolutely nothing solid in it.
It also raises questions about German participation in the MMMAC (Multi Mission Maritime Aircraft Capabilities) program. MMMAC is supposed to develop the requirements for two types of aircraft. One is to be a high end MMMA for Canada, France, and Germany, and the other is something simpler and cheaper for Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece. The MAWS program was apparently intended to run in parallel with that for France and Germany to jointly develop an actual aircraft based on those requirements.Germany is ordering 5 P-8 MPAs.
This very likely signs the death of the MAWS program between France and Germany.
Excellent news as far as I am concerned, it's time the charade of French-German cooperation comes to an end, there is absolutely nothing solid in it.