And that is the point. If Germany exported the ammo before the war it would be ok, but with Russia being the attacker then it is ok. Heck, why did we send equipment to Ukraine after the Russians invaded, it just prolonged the war. We should have just let Russia take it. Switzerland is lucky it is surrounded by Nato countries. In that case there is no need for them to have an arms industry.
I take an intermediate position. They have always taken a keen interest in defense, which is understandable in light of how often the lands on their borders have changed title, sometimes by treaty but usually at halberd-point. So a homegrown war industry is expected and prudent. Pretty much the only thing they import are the fast jets, and the faster sharp bits they hang from them.
Too afraid Russians will take their money out of the banks.
Who'd have thought we'd be here today where Ukraine is autonomously constructing long range drones and hitting targets deep inside Russia,I 've gone back and watched many video's on some highly respected veterans you tube channels and their predictions at the onset of hostilities and pretty much the common consensus was that Russia would have Kiev in a weeks time at most,what a incredible against all odds outcome.
The big factor was the corruption and incompetence of the Russian military and political leadership. They hid it from Vlad, and so hid it from western intelligence agencies with connections at the top, they were reading the same lies as Vlad. They didn't even know they were this bad and it came as a bigger shock to Vlad than many in the west! Just depending on the top layers of their government was a mistake, since they were lied to by those below them and on it went down to the junior officers and troops selling off equipment online. Not just their army was so corrupt as to render it near useless, the air force and navy were worse, since they depend on technology more than the army. There was no Russian air force to speak of and pilots were untrained, and equipment poorly maintained. The Navy was being sunk by a country with no navy of its own to speak of and are largely driven from the western Black Sea.
Once I saw that long stalled logistics convoy near Kyyiv, I began to wonder if Russia bit off more than they could chew. In retrospect, they counted on a quick decisive blitz.
Agreed, a stalled convoy,parked bumper to bumper w/today's weaponry is not just stupid,it's suicidal
When no one can speak truth to power that's what happens,I fear the same in the US in a way.When I see the wasted billions in military procurement,failed programs(the Navy built 2 classes of useless combat littoral ships and has no effective surface combatant smaller than a destroyer), meanwhile China is stamping out new vessels faster than shit through a goose is ominous.What Mr. Xi has learned from Putin's charrade is that China will have to go all in concerning Taiwan meaning mobilization of the country and not a "special operation", which certainly isn't stealthy intel. wise. But Xi is feeling so powerful I don't think he will care about openly showing his intent. Five yrs. from now even if the US has the will to defend Tawain, I have seious reservations that we will have the means to do so.
Going for Tawain means war with the allies, not just Uncle Sam, but the west in general, shit the globe! We get almost all our advanced semiconductors from Tawain and China gets theirs from them too. Any attack would see these facilities destroyed and their highly trained and skilled workers dead or turned into refugees and scattered. It would mean instant war with the US, UK, EU, Aus, NZ, Japan, South Korea and all the Asian tigers in the region including Vietnam! Uncle Sam would have more enthusiastic company on this one than in Ukraine. China would be up against most of its trading partners and their economy would collapse FFS.
the Zumwalt-class frigates were a bad spend imo.
that's fine, i'm sure the rest of Europe will be very eager to defend the Swiss if they ever get invaded...
they pretty much stated earlier that their "intelligence" operatives lied to them, told them they had partisan groups ready to help them, when they had no one to help them, they were just pocketing the money they were given and then disappeared when the "elite" paratroopers dropped in, expecting to be led to Zelensky so they could arrest him...that column of troops expected to roll into Kyiv unopposed.
