this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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"This war has nothing to do with NATO. It's not NATO’s war," Stefan Kornelius, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, told reporters in Berlin on Monday. "NATO is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defense of its territory," he added.

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[–] remon@ani.social 37 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

But not out of principle ... our ships just don't go that far without breaking down!

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 13 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Isn't the pride of the German Navy a sailboat called the Gorch Fock?

[–] crazycraw@crazypeople.online 15 points 2 weeks ago

hey gorch fock yourself

jk

[–] GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago

It's a beautiful ship. But germany hast quite a few real good ships and submarines. Of course no where the quantity of USA. 

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

Dunno but the German word for team is mannschaft, and there was a German cycling team using Giant bikes, so the were the Giant Mannschaft.

Giggity.

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

And for 80 years, we were quite happy with that!

— love, your neighbors

[–] RandAlThor@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

lol is that true? are you german?

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It is a bit of a meme in germany that our military equipment suffers from a lack of maintenance. Also there were a bunch of cases of new weapons systems just failing catastrophically or having huge security issues.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My country is a bit towards the south and nobody really knows how our ships still manage to float.

We have ships where the entire navigation suite has been replaced with a commercial GPS.

The guns are fired... Every now and then. Sparingly. We still have ammunition from the 70's in stock. Some times we even manage to misplace equipment.

Yet somehow we're considered as the reliable ally, although a bit... wierd.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We have ships where the entire navigation suite has been replaced with a commercial GPS.

Honestly, that'll do just fine in 90% of cases.

Only issues are:

  • What do you do if some country has maliciously turned off or disabled the GPS satellites?

  • The commercial GPS unit probably isn't very EMP-resistant, so it might quickly be disabled if EMPs start going off all over the place ... as would happen in a nuclear war.

But as long as you're not fighting anybody capable of turning the entire GPS system off and the war hasn't gone nuclear, it should probably be fine.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sincerely? I'd expect to see astrolabes or sextants being pulled from storage.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Most naval ships actually do carry these old school navigation devices (as well as paper charts) and train on how to use them, just for this purpose. Just in case something disables the electronic navigation.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

That is nice to know

[–] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

While true, Germany also has quite strict rules on rating equipment to not be ready. A broken heating or turning indicator on an IFV means it counts as non operational.

For ships there’s a rule of thumb. One is operational and on a mission, one is being refueled and restocked, one is being refit, maintained, or upgraded. So you need three units to always have one available. Germany has six submarines, meaning two are always available for active operations.

For planes you have to do hours of maintenance for every minute in the air.

The Bundeswehr used to lack funds and personnel, now it lacks mostly qualified personnel.

[–] Herr_S_aus_H@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 weeks ago

The amount of funds was never the problem. The way it was spend is and was the main problem.

[–] _edge@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 weeks ago

"Bedingt abwehrfähig" is the bureacratic term the government uses to explain that the German military, in particular the equipment, is broken beyond any hope of repair.

[–] Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Germany sold some submarines to Greece that were leaning over on one side out the factory

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

BMW makes submarines?

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

So Canada is buying the Korean ones then?