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23 Nov, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Well... German frigate Hamburg was engaged in cooperative boarding of a Turkish flagged cargo ship in Med, in support of Libyan arms embargo. After the Turkish government objected to boarding, inspection was aborted & team returned to their ship. 🤷‍♂️
Bundeswehr official account emphasises the civilian crew was cooperative, the request to abort came from the "flag state". No further details.
Spiegel-article now supports above info of intervention straight from Ankara: container ship "Rosaline A" was 200 km off Benghazi, when stopped by HAMBURG. Several hours after boarding commenced "Turkey protested" inspection, which was then aborted.
spiegel.de/politik/auslan…
Opposition in Bundestag taking note. FDP speaker on defence says if GER accepts such intervention, might just as well quit the mission. Calls on FM Maas to make statement on matter asap.

More background on inspection. Note how effort was made to contact Turkey but "received no answer from the flag State" before commencing cooperative boarding. H/t @hdevreij

operationirini.eu/libya-operatio…

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More from @AlexLuck9

Alex Luck Profile picture
14 Sep
Haenel surprisingly wins German #Bundeswehr assault rifle competition against favorite Heckler&Koch, with its Mk556 AR15-architecture based product. No official confirmation yet but supposedly rifle matches spec and is cheaper than HK offering. Image Hk433 top, Mk556 below.
Haenel has a long history, but faced many changes due to hailing from Suhl, Thuringia in East Germany. Company re-established itself with production locally in 2008, but belongs to the Merkel Group (no relation to the Chancellor), which itself is owned by UAE-based Caracal Int.
A very interesting decision to be sure, with all sorts of ramifications, potentially overall very positive for GER small arms presence. Still, a protest by HK seems at least likely.

cc @LeighJNeville
Read 8 tweets
Alex Luck Profile picture
10 Jun
Righto, so I went through MinDef-report on Defence Matters, which for most part is interesting due to listing relevant weapons systems and their operational/developmental/procurement status. Same as w readiness report no readiness numbers, but clear cut language is informative.
Overall trend is positive but emphasises its not just about cash, but also adapting existing structures in industry and military force to actually being able to absorb that funding. Investment funding growth held up by approving major procurements, eg Tornado and CH-53.
NH-90: 77 of 82 units in TTH (army) config received. Rest due end of 2021. Major challenges are high maintenance requirements, obsolencies with older airframes, some operational restrictions (no details) & timely parts supply.
Read 19 tweets
Alex Luck Profile picture
6 May
Since #German mil twitter lately is going nuts about #Tornado-replacement, including SPD-folks of all people advocating F-35 suddenly again instead of Super Hornet, let me present a clear cut solution to this issue based on military requirements, not politics. Thread.
Luftwaffe needs to replace a force of 90ish Tornado. That replacement should be 1:1, no if's no but's no coconuts. Replacement needs to cover strike, SEAD and nuclear sharing. Notably Luftwaffe wants to maintain two separate models for fleet resilience.
We have in the past seen various proposals for addressing issue. Pure Eurofighter fleet by industry & SPD folks. Goes against Luftwaffe demand re resilience. Also no SEAD/EA role readily available. EA version in particular faces some integration issues (because CFTs are a no-no).
Read 10 tweets
Alex Luck Profile picture
1 Mar 19
Buckle up folks. Making good on my promise from last week. Got a bottle of Shiraz in me, so here we go... #Aliens
Given Cameron inherited this franchise from Scott, its arguably one of the most respectful sequels you can imagine.
I love this shot. Maybe my fav shot of the movie. Timeless effect plus it kinda looks like a xenomorph initially too. True art.
Read 99 tweets
Alex Luck Profile picture
10 Jun 18
Article reinforces the new aim of part of government around vd Leyen, #Merkel to raise #German defence budget to 1.5% GDP by 2025. NATO "target" of 2% will likely not be doable with Social Democrats (and there is very much the question of how all that cash would be spent anyway).
A raise to 1.5 % GDP would be a very substantial move, moving the German defence budget to about 60 billion USD (51 billion Euros) and comfortably take it past both France and UK in absolute numbers (two nuclear weapons states with respective expenses).
I already see opinions popping up to the effect of "its not enough". I'm sorry, but with all due respect and seeing the reports I have seen, these assessments are not based in reality. Even a raise to 1.5% will be challenging to absorb into an actually useful force structure.
Read 6 tweets

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