“[Putin] does not stop stressing what he’s really longing for, like, a renaissance of the Soviet empire,” Pistorius said of Putin. “He wants to be the dominant power in Europe. […]”
Germany’s biggest defense contractor, Rheinmetall, and its subsidiaries have won a commanding share of recent government contracts.
Rheinmetall was one of Germany’s major arms producers during WWI and WWII.
The problem with buy European is what? Europe doesn’t produce a stealth fighter like the F-35 currently. As for air defence, SAMP/T’s Aster 30 series interceptors are adequate for defence against ballistic missiles, but the radar is inadequate, so Europe has to wait for SAMP/T NG to match PATRIOT PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE. Air defence against longer range ballistics like Oreshnik, only the US and Israel in the western sphere of influence make systems for that, and Germany has bought the Israeli Arrow 3 because it’s cheaper than AEGIS ashore. Europe is not going to buy Chinese weapons for the most part. I guess the plan is to buy US weapons until the European equivalents are online, but that’s going to take a decade minimum.