Merkel wants a german Aircraft carrier

After german defense minister Kramp-Karrenbauer said she wants to intrudice an aircraft carrier into the german navy, german chancellor Merkel said, she supports this project.

Its supposed to cost 8.5 billion €.

While Germany has very much experince in shipbuilding, it never has constructed a functional aircraft carrier. The Graf-Zeppelin in WW II was never finanlized. Merkel said she can imagine to working together with other nations in this project, namely France, there is nothing decided yet.



https://www.derwesten.de/panorama/s...s-militaer-projekt-in-europa-id216643979.html

Some proposed to give contracts regarding this to the americans (Amthor) but it would be interesting to see that. trump would be crazy to get such a contract and would see this as a victory. Its doubtful Merkel would want to give such a victory to Trump.

On the otehr side it would make it harder for Trump to critisize Germany again and again.

The big problem would be, that german corporations must be involved. Like Blohm & Voss and that large parts of the vessel must be build from them. So it will be interetsing how this would work out.

 

One aircraft carrier will not be enough to win a war againt the US

Even with france russia and iran helping

 

Didn't they already build a frigate that doesn't work?

This project just can't be serious.

 

We dont want a war with USA.

And according to ex minister Gabriel there are plans for a fleet of four carriers.

 

We never build a frigate that doesnt work.

Germany is world leading in ship building. Most cruise ships of the world are german build.

The problem we have is when the state gets involved. I dont know about your country but here politicians mingle into stuff they have no clue about and the corporation that builds the stuff does not have the guts to say no. So in the end problems arrive.

 

The British have 2 carriers, but only one is operational. I don't think the planes work yet though. What are you going to run on your carrier, the F35 thing? Standard or VTOL?

eta: this is what I remembered: https://www.wsj.com/articles/german-engineering-yields-new-warship-that-isnt-fit-for-sea-1515753000

 

Currently the Eurofighter and in the long run our own 6th gen fighter jet







Germany showed interest in the F35 but cancelled that interest after USA send detailed plans.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/...s-f-35-out-of-competition-to-replace-tornado/

 

There's no current version of the Eurofighter for naval use. When does this new aircraft arrive?

 

Its supposed to be ready in 2030. Im quite sure that the Eurofighter can be adjusted to launch and land on it with the use of steam catapults. There is also the "magnetic" option but this system doesnt seem to work properly in the new american carriers

 

I think the American system works some of the time but dumps the occasional plane into the sea, which is not very cost effective. I read an article which says it will be difficult to adapt the EF, but still, they can throw some money at it.
So in 11 years you may have a carrier which may be able to fly some planes....good luck with that. It will stop the Russian tanks, no doubt.

 

What a colossal waste of money.

 

You're not the world leader in military ship building. See you are just now building an aircraft carrier. Make sure to keep the training wheels on if you dont hire the pros to build it and build it out for you.

 

None of your subs are operational. Seems to me you want to spend 8.6B on something that will just sit at the doc for 10-20 years.

 

The Graf-Zeppelin was intentionally sunk by the Nazis as the Soviets closed in.....then the Soviets raised it only to use it as target practice and sink it again.

 

Russia is no enemy. Please consider, that we dont share the american psychosis regarding Russia as a threat and take this in consideration of the German defense plans.

 

We have a 60 billion € annual budget surplus. we can build 9 of those vessels each year without burdening our budget.

 

Wrong, currently we have 4 operational subs.

Also do you know why last year no sub was operational? Because the "experts" send all into revision at same time except one and that one was damaged and went into repair.

I find it wrong, that you blame the tech for idiotic buerocrats, like your own country doesnt suffer from the same sickness.

 

We build the world best submarines, and frigates. Our focus is on cruise ships and coast guard ships.

You seriously say Blohm & Voss should keep training wheels? B&V build the fastest transatlantic liners. Gigantic vessels like the Imperator, which dwarfed the Titanic. Build battle ships like Bismarck and Tirpitz,

What we dont have experience with is carriers and installing nuclear propulsion, since we did not use that technology in ship building yet.

Thats why we see if we get other countries into the project, like France for example. Maybe even USA.

What you certainly not get is a contract that you build the ship and deliver the finished product.

The vessel must be build here. What most likely will be outscoruced is propulsion and the aircraft management tech and such stuff.

 

IMO this is a major waste money, time and resources that could and should be placed elsewhere. The German Navy, as much as it likes to think it is, isn’t a force projection navy. On the other hand, the US Navy is. We can put two CBG together and set sail and be on someone’s doorstep in 10-14 day. The German navy doesn’t have any capital ships, 10 frigates, 5 corvettes, 3 minesweepers, 10 minehunters, and 6 submarines. Those are really projection of but rather smaller fleet defense ships. Which there isn’t anything wrong with you need to be able to protect the fleet. But, German navy isn't like that, and it isn't something they're suited for

 

German u-boats are not nuclear powered blue water vessels, they're littoral waters vessels. So that means range and endurance is very limited.

 

You dont see the wider planning in that? Since USA has become untrustworthy and not a real partner, Germany wants be able to replace the US partnership with own capability, step by step.

We have the funds for it, so why not step further? Trump again and again blames us and wants our defense budget to rise. This is a part of that.

 

They are soundless, they are consdiered almost undetectable when operating. Nuclear evssels create sound and hot water which makes them visible.

So far a german submarine is teh only submarine that was capable to breach the security cordon around a american carrier and fire a torpedo at it in a NATO maneuver.

 

Germany, Russia...et al...would be very lucky to get off a shot at the U.S navy and once they did they would be destroyed. Any German carrier would be inferior in quality and technology but it would be allied regardless....Once Trump is gone we will return to world domination and respect.

 

That doesn't make it not a waste of money.. There are opportunity costs: what else could you have spent that money on?

Why does Germany need an aircraft carrier for anyway? Swag?

 

Good luck with that....