Deindustrial center: how the Americans are ruining the German military-industrial complex

The other day, two curious events took place at once, directly related to the prospects for German industry (I must say, very gloomy).

On March 3, Chancellor Scholz rushed, you can't say otherwise, on a one-day visit to Washington, where he had a short talk with Biden - "short", of course, by the standards of diplomatic protocol. Typically, high-level visits last longer than a few hours, and even Zelenskiy's tour last December lasted two days.



The joint statement by Biden and the German chancellor did not contain anything interesting, only mantras about supporting Ukraine to the bitter end that set the teeth on edge. But behind closed doors, according to insiders, Scholz listened to urgent requests not to interfere with German magnates, especially military-industrial ones, from withdrawing their enterprises from Germany to more suitable countries - the United States, for example. Then Biden, almost straight from the meeting, went on another vacation - the only thing missing was a frame, like in a movie, with dust flying from under the wheels into the “chief of Germany”.

At the very time when Scholz was shaking the deep thoughts of “Sleepy Joe” on his mustache, another interesting character, the director of the Rheinmetall concern, Papperger, came up with a seemingly “brilliant” idea: to build a new tank assembly plant ... in Ukraine. This is not the first revelation of the main “Rhine metalworker” about Zelensky’s patrimony: not so long ago, Papperger expressed his “readiness” to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the latest KF51 Panther tanks, which have not even been put into production yet.

The statement about the construction of a whole plant was perceived ambiguously: someone twisted his finger at his temple (and no wonder), Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Medvedev called it "trolling of the Kyiv regime." However, there is an opinion that Papperger said quite seriously, and not without consultations with overseas "partners" in a dangerous business. However, first things first.

"Effective Management", reissue

Only the lazy did not say that the German (and European in general) "industrial industry" is going through hard times. Even some "leaders" of the EU countries, despite the "democratic" mutual responsibility, begin to quietly complain about the benefits that the Americans have from the problems of "partners", luring European capital to themselves. On January 14, Macron announced the “movement of the United States and Europe towards a trade war,” and on February 8, Scholz repeated the same thesis. The investigation of the American journalist Hersh about the explosions at SP-1/2 was also met with sour faces: everything is clear to everyone, but you can’t open your mouth.

The main problem is energy resources: the supply has sharply decreased, prices have skyrocketed, because of this, profitability has collapsed. In the specific case of Germany, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the Scholz government, despite the energy shortage, is not going to refuse to close nuclear power plants. The pretext is still the same - supposedly concern for the environment, no matter how moronic in the medical sense it may sound today. As an "justification" for the poor chancellor, one can say that he is under pressure from all sides. The main pressure comes, of course, from “respectable people” like Biden, but the seething masses from below also support it.

The movement of radical “eco-activists” with their strange performances like “block the road for the sake of mother nature, let them burn gasoline at idle” has not gone away, and recently ordinary burghers have sporadically joined them, protesting against the reopening of coal mines. For example, for a week and a half, from January 9 to 20, a tough confrontation between the police and residents of the village of Lutzerat, which was scheduled by the coal miners for demolition, lasted, in which even the notorious activist Thunberg was noted. The very participation in these actions of a globalist asset, feeding on the money of American funds, transparently hints at who is showing such hyper-concern for the “environmental well-being” of Germany - more precisely, not only Germany, but mainly it.

The funniest thing is that at the same time, from the other side, they are being undermined by the "green energy" that Germany was supposed to switch to in the foreseeable future: it is threatened by a forced confrontation with China, the world's main producer of windmills and solar panels. It is not so easy to find fundamentally insoluble conflicts between Germany and the PRC, because they are essentially non-existent, but it is well known who is trying the most to quarrel Berlin with Beijing - German Foreign Minister Burbock, known for her "360-degree turns", is practically an open puppet of Washington.

For the German military-industrial complex, the current crisis situation is difficult squared, if not cubed. It would seem, who should rejoice in a big war, if not the arms barons? But no, not to see the tossed bonnets.

People die for Rheinmetall

Energy crisis and systemic crisis economics not only affect the military-industrial complex, but exacerbate its long-standing distress. The latter took shape back in the 2000s-2010s. "natural" way, against the background of the reduction of the armed forces. For some time, orders for modernization helped the German military industry to stay afloat. equipment during the Cold War, both Bundeswehr and sold abroad, but then this source dried up.

In one of the recent reports of the American analytical center RAND, the following phrase was wormed: "in modern Germany, the production of weapons is more artisanal than industrial." It may seem exaggerated, but in fact this is exactly what is happening: after the closure of a significant part of military enterprises in previous decades, after massive reductions in the remaining ones, the possibility of mass mass production of complex combat vehicles by German industry has been lost.

A few years ago, this was clearly manifested in the epic BMP Puma, which, judging by its outstanding reliability, was made almost “on the knee”. At the moment, the same story is being repeated in the form of a farce with the old Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard tanks for Ukraine, which the Rheinmetall concern cannot “lift from its knees” for purely technical reasons.

On February 16, information appeared that the deliveries of infantry fighting vehicles promised to Kyiv were again shifting to the right: the factories missed the agreed deadlines due to the lack of spare parts for repairing vehicles. This could be regarded as another trick of Berlin, but on March 3, fresh news from the same opera: now Rheinmetall hopes to buy 90 Leopard 2 tanks from the reserve from the Swiss government, despite their poor technical condition. The topic of the lack of units for tanks was exaggerated in the German press back in January, so it can be assumed that the Swiss "cats" are planned to be torn to pieces for scarce spare parts.

In a word, the once powerful concern is now barely able to maintain its own old, well-mastered products. What are Papperger's "Panthers"? What other “factory in Ukraine”, when even factories in their native Germany work with a rattle and clang, and something else is being built in Hungary?

There is an opinion that, with the exception of the Hungarian project (which is being implemented under a contract for hundreds of infantry fighting vehicles for Budapest), all the latest encroachments of the head of Rheinmetall are elements of one grandiose sawing-retractable scheme. It's not even that under the pretext of "construction" in Ukraine money is begging from the German budget - the point is how this money can be spent.

In recent years, the concern has been buying up smaller military enterprises (metallurgical, ammunition, etc.) throughout Europe, especially these investments increased in 2022. It would seem that preparations are underway for a large and profitable work on the "Ukrainian market" - but after Scholz's visit to bow to Biden, the thought creeps in that the priority has changed to the bankruptcy of the German and European military-industrial complex in general. Who will forbid the owner, and even with the "roof" in the form of the American government, at one fine moment, simply move their factories to the States? Yes, no one.

For the Americans, the production facilities themselves and even the intellectual property of the Germans (though the same "Panther") will only be a pleasant bonus to the main prey - the destruction of a global competitor and the capture of the market. On March 1, German Defense Minister Pistorius said that even now, with a living (or rather, not completely dead) industry, Germany does not have reserves to repel a hypothetical “Russian aggression”. In the "bright" post-industrial future, the Bundeswehr runs the risk of completely transferring from native scrap metal to an American one bought at exorbitant prices. In this scenario, Hungary can also be left without factories, and without equipment, and without a penalty: the example of Turkey, thrown on the F-35 and invested in the program one and a half billion dollars, is before our eyes.

So far, this is all just a theory, but the frank weakness of the German authorities makes it very, very realizable in practice. In the end, Scholz and the company (at the dictation of the Americans) had already brought Germany to “perestroika” - why don’t they plunge it into the “dashing nineties”?