It’s a Julfest Wunderwaffe Wunder.
The article and the links aren’t clear: are these tanks gifts or was Ukraine forced to pay for them with loans?
Despite how the media always portray it, the US hasn’t gifted Ukraine a damn thing, but whether Europe has I couldn’t say.
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.
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.
Probably. These are from about two years ago. I’m not sure things played out this way, but it seems likely.
