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this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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My instincts say that Germany is profiting from this the way the US does with its own military Keynesianism. 🤷♀️
Your instincts are wrong, it's pretty much all donations. Ukraine bought some stuff from German suppliers from their own money but the vast majority is refurbished stuff as well as Germany covering Ukrainian orders from German suppliers. 25 million Euro for 5100 anti-tank weapons from Dynamit Nobel, sounds about right for the PzF3.
Companies are certainly profiting from it, sure, but it's overwhelmingly paid out of the German budget. And the companies then again pay taxes in Germany, hard to assess actual cost for the tax payer, also e.g. how much could those old Leos actually be sold for in the state they were in before refurbishment. Especially the US accounting is rather suspicious, there, as they would have scrapped the old stuff which costs money and shipping it over to Ukraine might actually be cheaper.
Oh, so they're not selling them, they're just giving Ukraine their trash as a cheaper method of disposal.
In their defence it's very useful trash outclassing, in general practice, what Russia is fielding (Bradleys are sturdy, practical, and their autocannons pack a punch), it's just the accounting that's straight out of Hollywood: The sums you're seeing announced prices old stuff at the replacement value, that is, what new stuff costs, stuff that they would have bought anyway. It's entirely imaginary dollars.
Wow! Truly our generous lord, supply side Jesus, is amazing. Not only were building these military vehicles the best use of resources 20 years ago when no one was asking for them, but they actually save us money and it's even good for the environment to ship them across the world in the present day. What an amazing and perfect world the MIC has created for us.
meanwhile in the real world https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russias-old-t-72-best-tank-earth-and-ukraine-knows-it-213349
"Useful" in the sense that it keeps the war going. They always get just enough to keep fighting, but never enough to win.
Probably. These are from about two years ago. I’m not sure things played out this way, but it seems likely.