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Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

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Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#71

Post by inigoalonso »

wewxjfq wrote: post #53
SXX wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is a good for EU. In past decades EU lost energy independence and good part of nuclear because croocked politicians that took dictatorships money while feeding same dictator with oil and gas money. At the same time EU had no proper army to defend itself because dependance on US or a way to supply said army.

Europe sans Russia does not produce uranium - why people constantly paint this as an independent energy source is beyond me. Of all Russian energy companies, it was Rosatom that could not be sanctioned.

You’re right that European nuclear is not "independent" if that means "mined entirely inside Europe". But the dependency profile is not the same for Russian pipeline gas. Uranium is globally traded, compact, cheap to stockpile relative to the energy it contains, and available from several non-Russian suppliers (Kazakhstan, Canada, Namibia, Australia...). The harder choke points are conversion, enrichment, and reactor-specific fuel fabrication.

Europe does have uranium resources, for instance the Salamanca/Retortillo project, but the constraint is permitting, environmental acceptance, waste handling, and political legitimacy rather than geology. So the honest claim is not "nuclear makes Europe autarkic". It is "nuclear gives Europe a more diversifiable and stockpilable dependency than gas, provided Europe also invests in mining, conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication capacity".

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#72

Post by sajithdilshan »

This feels like the 1920s all over again. Germany is riddled with structural and economic failures, yet instead of addressing them, politicians are pivoting toward a war footing. The economy has been trapped in a cycle of recession and stagnation since the pandemic, but the current political response is to debate cuts to social benefits and tax increases. This is compounded by a self-inflicted energy crisis, shutting down every nuclear power plant has destabilized the energy market for the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, the AfD is polling at nearly 30% nationwide. History may not repeat itself, but it is definitely rhyming.

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#74

Post by strogonoff »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #67
ragebol wrote: post #2

It's still baffling to see the US lose so much face in so short a time. There is definitely truth that Europe has relied on US defense for too long, but what the US got in return is hard to put into words and economic terms. We bought your tech, culture, defense and so much other stuff. This rift won't close anytime soon

Minor nitpick: you meant "lose", not "loose". It's a common mistake that I see around, and I think it might be useful for you to know :)

I dabble in correcting other people’s spelling on occasion (can’t help it). Somewhat frustratingly, the usual reaction is “language evolves” and “everyone uses it this way” and “if it is understood, it does not matter how you wrote it”.

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#75

Post by piva00 »

vkou wrote: post #65
ignoramous wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US is teetering on the edge of a financial abyss. Do you say this because of the outstanding debt? Otherwise, just their top 10 publicly traded companies earn more than all but 2 countries. Just the US defense budget ($1T and estimated $1.5T next year), which exports US foreign policy globally, absolutely dwarfs every other country's.

The issue isn't the debt. Debt can be paid off. The issue is that there's a complete collapse in it's ability to pick good leadership, or at least leadership that can meet the bar of 'doesn't piss on the floor', and no path for course-correction from it. It's in the 'everyone plunder as much as you can carry' stage, and nobody cares . (Which also means that whatever that debt will be buying will more likely than not,…

Debt can be paid off until it can't, US's budget expenditure on interests has tripled since 2020, it is larger than their expenditure on the military now.

The 10-year bond yield is not controlled by the Fed, if it keeps raising the interests payment will continue the crushing of the budget. The USA currently depends on debt, it doesn't collect enough taxes to cover expenses as it is, with interests raising on an even larger debt amount there's no way out except for raising taxes to plug the gap. Any American politician who raises taxes will be out of a job, it's one of the most sensitive topics for Americans so it will only be done when the problem is out of hand.

Of course, the USA can just print its way out of debt instead of raising taxes but at that point their bonds wouldn't be as attractive, inflation would also become a huge issue (probably the 2nd most sensitive economic topic for Americans).

As far as I know most empires had their pivotal moment when their debt crushed their power, it seems to be inevitable.

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#76

Post by pjc50 »

renewiltord wrote: post #64
pjc50 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean withdrawing US forces from Germany and elsewhere? Does that mean ceasing to use Europe as a strike base for the middle east?

[flagged]

The US decision to enter the war was independent of (and I think before?) the extermination camps, purely decided by Germany declaring war on the US.

The practice of interning a large number of people in camps without access to legal process .. well, which side of the Atlantic has more of that at the moment?

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#77

Post by vkou »

piva00 wrote: post #75
vkou wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue isn't the debt. Debt can be paid off. The issue is that there's a complete collapse in it's ability to pick good leadership, or at least leadership that can meet the bar of 'doesn't piss on the floor', and no path for course-correction from it. It's in the 'everyone plunder as much as you can carry' stage, and nobody cares . (Which also means that whatever that debt will be buying will more likely than not,…

Debt can be paid off until it can't, US's budget expenditure on interests has tripled since 2020, it is larger than their expenditure on the military now. The 10-year bond yield is not controlled by the Fed, if it keeps raising the interests payment will continue the crushing of the budget. The USA currently depends on debt, it doesn't collect enough taxes to cover expenses as it is, with interests raising on an even…

> Debt can be paid off until it can't,

> The USA currently depends on debt, it doesn't collect enough taxes to cover expenses as it is

That's where the lack of 'good governance' comes in. Good governance would, as of 2026, require raising taxes. The US has plenty of capacity to pay, it's just that the people running it prioritize keeping capital owners happy over the long-term welfare of the country.

You're right that actually raising taxes is political suicide. That's one of the reasons this dysfunction has no escape clause, but the past 10 years have piled on a lot of other reasons, too. It's one thing when a government is ignoring a financial timebomb, but is otherwise, trying to... Run the country like a country.

It's another when it's ignoring a financial timebomb, while also running the country in the same way that a drunk runs a hurdle race.

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#78

Post by gorgolo »

aa-jv wrote: post #66
ragebol wrote: post #2

It's still baffling to see the US lose so much face in so short a time. There is definitely truth that Europe has relied on US defense for too long, but what the US got in return is hard to put into words and economic terms. We bought your tech, culture, defense and so much other stuff. This rift won't close anytime soon

Short time? No, the US has been losing its stance in the world since the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, murdering a million people in cold blood on the basis of outright lies. It has been downhill ever since then. The support for the Gaza genocide is just one in a long list of atrocities for which the American state is responsible, and for which the entire world is starting to hold America responsible. The rest of…

I’m not from the US and not trying to defend the US actions, but on Iraq and Gaza, much of Europe takes the same position and goes along with it (and even directly joined the wars and sent troops).

I find the online opinion on Europe / US relations interesting. Online you’d think Europe and US are about to split. But in real life, Europe is more dependent on the US than ever. In terms of energy (Russian fossil fuels basically replaced by US fossil fuels), defense, economy (European economy relatively smaller now than 20 yrs ago), and they just finished signing very one sided deals where they guarantee energy purchases and investment after the tariff war. I think there’s a disconnect between European commenters and European politicians.

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#79

Post by close04 »

wewxjfq wrote: post #53
SXX wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is a good for EU. In past decades EU lost energy independence and good part of nuclear because croocked politicians that took dictatorships money while feeding same dictator with oil and gas money. At the same time EU had no proper army to defend itself because dependance on US or a way to supply said army.

Europe sans Russia does not produce uranium - why people constantly paint this as an independent energy source is beyond me. Of all Russian energy companies, it was Rosatom that could not be sanctioned.

> Europe sans Russia does not produce uranium

Kazakhstan is by far the largest uranium producer in the world and has a leg in Europe, west of the Ural river. The important thing is that there are more stable partners worldwide for uranium than Russia is for oil and gas.

There are deposits in Europe, the respective countries decided not to exploit them [0]. This could change depending on external pressures.

[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X2...

Re: Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

#80

Post by ragebol »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #67
ragebol wrote: post #2

It's still baffling to see the US lose so much face in so short a time. There is definitely truth that Europe has relied on US defense for too long, but what the US got in return is hard to put into words and economic terms. We bought your tech, culture, defense and so much other stuff. This rift won't close anytime soon

Minor nitpick: you meant "lose", not "loose". It's a common mistake that I see around, and I think it might be useful for you to know :)

Corrected
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