German Chancellor Scholl spoke to Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwey about all these weapons systems. I think after the United States it is Germany and the UK that are delivering the most weapons to Ukraine, he said. As you know, we are absolutely active in doing the real hard stuff with our howitzers,. This is what we did together with the United States and UK when we delivered multi-rocket launches. And we are doing a lot in the question of air defence with our gapper tanks... The whole world is looking at it because it seems to be nearly 100% effective in fighting against missiles.
For decades, Germany has downplayed military spending. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government reversed its longstanding ban on sending weapons into war zones, and announced a plan to spend an additional 100 billion euros to upgrade its armed forces.
Bloomberg senior editor Alan Crawford joins this episode to explain why the country’s defense industry is booming—and why that’s dividing a public wary of a German military resurgence. And military analyst Dr. Bastian Giegerich makes the case for why Germany should be spending even more to prepare for current and future threats.
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