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Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

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Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#41

Post by lopsotronic »

tristanj wrote: post #3

Germany is producing weapons to fight the last war. WWIII will be fought with drones, not artillery. They should invest part of this money into becoming the leader in drone manufacturing, not this. Since it's Germany, the money for this manufacturing ramp-up was probably allocated around 2023-2024, when older artillery was needed and before drone superiority was obvious. So maybe this is the expected outcome. If the…

It's going to be both, and it's because of physics.

At this moment, the best way to put kinetic energy into an enemy is sticking some quantity of explosive on them.

You have a few ways of going about this. Two we consider today: 1) a chemical charge launches a block of explosive ballistically at a closing range of mach 2-5, 2) a complex assembly of plastic/rare earths/silicon/PCBAs flies over to the enemy at somewhere around "fast bicycle" or "leisurely highway" speeds.

By weight, 1 is cheaper, and all you lose is the explosive. 2 is more accurate, but that whole flying assembly is a loss.

Now, when you do something cute like take one little chunk of electronics and stick it on your block of explosive, and then orbit your doodad at a nice safe distance so it beams a homing dot on the target - your ballistic explosive sees the dot and steers toward it. See what I'm getting at? Cheap as 1, accurate as 2.

This is a really, really winning combo when you can pull it off, but lately, UAS ops has gotten a universe more difficult with the dirty dirty EW and now with all sorts of countermeasures.

Even better reason for our little flying widgets to keep their frickin' distance. Even if they get swatted down, they can cue in shot after shot after shot, with much more bang.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#42

Post by amarant »

varispeed wrote: post #36
heyheyhouhou wrote: post #23

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands o…

I find it puzzling why they won't pivot to industries that actually matter like making competition to Micron or Samsung and manufacture RAM at scale. Amping up military production is basically a reaction to certain countries electing maniacal pedos as presidents instead of jailing them.

When Russia is knocking at your door, weapons do matter.

Even moreso than cellphones.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#43

Post by newsclues »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #31
cromka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Pole: it was bad before they stepped up. I am happy to see Germany becoming a stronger force in the region.

Maybe your thoughts will change if they invade you again a few elections later

Depends on how far away the Russian invasion was.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#45

Post by FuckButtons »

varispeed wrote: post #36
heyheyhouhou wrote: post #23

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands o…

I find it puzzling why they won't pivot to industries that actually matter like making competition to Micron or Samsung and manufacture RAM at scale. Amping up military production is basically a reaction to certain countries electing maniacal pedos as presidents instead of jailing them.

Because those are very capital intensive and don’t skew towards germanys existing competitive advantage in diesel engines and high precision heavy engineering. Same reason most places don’t try to compete, it’s cost prohibitive to do so.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#46

Post by bitvvip »

heyheyhouhou wrote: post #23

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands o…

This is a crazy world. Everyone should stay away from war

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#47

Post by tristanj »

drob518 wrote: post #21
tristanj wrote: post #3

Germany is producing weapons to fight the last war. WWIII will be fought with drones, not artillery. They should invest part of this money into becoming the leader in drone manufacturing, not this. Since it's Germany, the money for this manufacturing ramp-up was probably allocated around 2023-2024, when older artillery was needed and before drone superiority was obvious. So maybe this is the expected outcome. If the…

It’s rare for military technology to completely “move on” to other things. Typically, the new just gets added to the old. So, yea, drones are new, but drones don’t cause artillery to become completely obsolete, in the same way that aerial bombs didn’t cause artillery to become obsolete. You’ll end up spending on both.

Ukraine has essentially moved-on from artillery to drones, just last month (March 2026) drones caused 96% of Russian casualties. Artillery and small arms fire accounted for the rest.

Also, artillery has a maximum effective range of ~30km. Ukraine's drone kill-zone is 20km and with newer drones pushing to 50-100km. By next year it won't even possible to bring artillery and a large number of shells into the frontlines without being targeted.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#48

Post by throwaway894345 »

varispeed wrote: post #36
heyheyhouhou wrote: post #23

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands o…

I find it puzzling why they won't pivot to industries that actually matter like making competition to Micron or Samsung and manufacture RAM at scale. Amping up military production is basically a reaction to certain countries electing maniacal pedos as presidents instead of jailing them.

Presumably because those markets are difficult to break into whereas Germany can sell defense equipment to allied countries pretty easily (they don’t need to compete with China because Germany’s allies largely don’t want to be dependent on China militarily for geopolitical reasons).

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#49

Post by CamperBob2 »

walrus01 wrote: post #34
inquirerGeneral wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The actual risks of modern day Germany going on a hegemonic rampage across Europe are extremely low. Their interests these days are much more aligned with maintaining proper democratic institutions, the EU, and being a voice for the free non-russia-aligned world.

All of which was also true for the US... right up until it wasn't.

Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

#50

Post by Levitz »

varispeed wrote: post #36
heyheyhouhou wrote: post #23

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands o…

I find it puzzling why they won't pivot to industries that actually matter like making competition to Micron or Samsung and manufacture RAM at scale. Amping up military production is basically a reaction to certain countries electing maniacal pedos as presidents instead of jailing them.

If we are going to look outside the country for blame, China and Russia are right there.

Not being able to trust US protection as much as in the past is evidently a terrible state of affairs, but this isn't the root of the problem.

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