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Even basic stuff like small arms ammunition, when I was in the 70s it was carefully handed out on range days and we had to sign for how much we got. Then we had to give any unused back after counting it out.
Back in the good old days of the 20th century I was enrolled in the artillery, but managed to get out of most of it by applying for exemptions etc (won't bore you with the details). However, my mate did the full course and could tell me about how every artillery drill was just faking it, loading empty shells etc, down to the point of having a recruit shouting 'boom' to simulate firing. In his X months of enlistment he shot live artillery rounds on one single occasion.
That’s a tough read. Scholz may be right that Germany doesn’t have a lot of stuff lying around surplus. And making more isn’t easy.
USA has incredible stock levels, that’s why they can supply literally within hours.
Few if any other countries have anything comparable. Germany probably doesn’t, I know Canada has hardly any stockpiles of anything.
Even basic stuff like small arms ammunition, when I was in the 70s it was carefully handed out on range days and we had to sign for how much we got. Then we had to give any unused back after counting it out.
One time we had a training day with TOW anti tanks. We watched the trainer fire one . Nobody I know ever got to fire one ever again…everything was carefully packed up and taken away.
US doctrine has always been that any nato vs CCCP war would “Come as You Are”. The was would be more intense than anything previous, and there would be no time for resupply. An F15 takes months to build, a war would be over before a replacement would come onstream. Hence the habit if keeping large overstock.