With fond memories of the last time Germany ramped up its war machine, you might think that's okay. Any sane person would in normal circumstances.
But these days, with Trump on NATO's and the European allies' backs about carrying their own weight, coupled with all their empty smacktalk about how they could if they wanted to when they actually can barely put a boat in the water between them, there has been a lot of pressure to start adding to military inventories across the continent.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been desperate to be seen as someone of enormous influence, began taking a front-and-center position late last fall as the European Union moved to force all members into a defense modernization spending spree - whether they had the money or not.
Most of them didn't, including the Germans.
No worry to Merz, though, who was positioning himself as the leader of the rearmament.
I'm so glad Euros want to take more responsibility for their own defense.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) December 16, 2025
But this dude is smoking some bad German weed if he thinks it's an "advantage" to lack a strategic logistics infrastructure and global intelligence/surveillance capabilities.
Moreover, concepts like… https://t.co/goXrO0v3Ns
...Moreover, concepts like "Bürger in Uniform" (quasi-unionization of German military forces) leaves it unlikely that the willingness to die for one's country is a strong ethic of the Bundeswehr.
But hey, I'm not complaining. About time they took the load off of the American taxpayer and its armed forces.
But, as they say, reality bites, and that wall is hard when you run straight into it.
Nine years ago, French Pouf de Crème Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel got together and agreed to a groundbreaking program between the two countries. They would develop a strictly European next-generation fighter, capable of meeting all their own countries' defense requirements and upholding their NATO commitments. It would also free them from the thrall of having to purchase US aircraft to fill gaps in capabilities their own fighter production lacked. Spain joined the program in 2019.
After almost a decade and €4 billion, the entire idea was scrapped two weeks ago.
Talk about egg on some Franco-German faces.
The ILA Berlin Air Show opened Wednesday at Berlin ExpoCenter Airport (BER) with a landmark that rewrites European defense history: nine years after France and Germany unveiled a shared vision for the continent's most powerful fighter jet, that vision is over. Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced at ILA's opening ceremony that Germany and France have formally ended the crewed aircraft component of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program — the same stage where the partnership was born in 2018. The €100 billion project, Europe's most ambitious defense collaboration since the Eurofighter, could not survive the industrial rivalry it was built on.
Every NATO ally with an aging Eurofighter Typhoon or Rafale fleet — and every defense ministry watching Europe scramble to rearm — now needs to know what Berlin does next. Three paths are open: join the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), order more F-35As, or back eight German companies that launched a new consortium, called Team Gen 6, at ILA this week. The choice will define Europe's air power structure for a generation.
They just never could get their act together, although right at the end, Merz tried repeatedly to salvage it.
FCAS Program Terminated: Nine Years, No Aircraft, and a Structural Fault That Could Not Be Engineered Away
FCAS was announced in July 2017 by President Emmanuel Macron and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel as a flagship symbol of Franco-German defense cooperation. Spain joined as a third partner in 2019. The program's formal industrial partnership between Dassault Aviation and Airbus was unveiled at the very same ILA Berlin show in 2018. Its goal was sweeping: a sixth-generation stealth combat aircraft to replace France's Rafale and Germany's Eurofighter Typhoon by the early 2040s, complemented by autonomous drones and an AI-powered digital "combat cloud" linking the entire system.
The structural fault line was there from the beginning. France requires an aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons and operating from an aircraft carrier; Germany needs a long-range conventional air superiority platform. Those requirements cannot be satisfied by a single airframe without compromising both. On top of that divergence, Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier insisted on a dominant lead-contractor role for the French firm — what Dassault called the "best-athlete" model. Airbus, carrying the industrial weight of Germany and Spain, refused to be a junior partner on a program it was helping to fund.
By 2025, reports emerged that Dassault was seeking up to 80% of the fighter's workshare, which would have effectively concentrated all core design authority in France. Germany responded by funding a political mediation process launched after a Macron-Merz dinner in Brussels on March 18, 2026. A German mediator formally concluded on April 18, 2026, that a jointly built crewed fighter was no longer feasible. A Macron-Merz bilateral at an informal EU summit in Cyprus on April 23, 2026, kicked the decision back to defense ministries, but produced no resolution. Merz personally attempted to persuade Trappier to accept equal partnership terms. That effort also failed.
Black eye number one.
Merz's other eye got its shiner today.
After six years and nearly €3 billion, the Germans pulled the plug on their high-tech submarine hunter frigate program today.
Germany’s Defense Ministry has canceled its troubled F126 frigate program, scrapping plans to build six specialized anti-submarine warships and opting instead to procure eight MEKO A-200 frigates from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, the ministry announced Wednesday.
The decision follows years of delays and cost overruns under Dutch shipbuilder Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, which was awarded the original contract in 2020 to build six of the 10,550-ton frigates for roughly €10 billion ($11.3 billion). The ministry said Damen had given notice that the ships could not be delivered within the agreed timeline or budget.
They decided to buy a cheaper and faster-to-build model from someone else. Of course, it won't be able to do what they need, but, hello - it's been six years.
...The German navy operates 10 frigates, though none specialize in submarine-hunting. The 121-meter (397-foot) MEKO-class ships can’t carry as many weapons or sensors as the 166-meter F126 design, but the specific loadouts haven’t been made public.
“The delays in getting this sorted and actually building some frigates mean that the German navy is going to have some capability gaps over the next few years, which is not a good time for that to happen,” said Emma Salisbury of the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre.
The German government is already facing criticism for project selection and how it’s allocating an expanded defense budget. It pulled out of the Franco-German fighter jet program FCAS only two weeks ago.
This leaves the Germans with 10 older frigates and 'capability gaps' yet again, particularly with Russian subs so active in the Baltic and North Sea.
...The decision puts the navy in a tough spot, too. With Europe rearming — and Germany being among the top spenders — having a high-profile weapons program fall apart damages efforts to modernize and expand.
Anti-submarine warfare is a particular pressure point, with Russian activity picking up around northern Europe. British company BAE Systems Plc has already sold at least five of its Type 26 anti-submarine frigates to Norway, and Babcock International Group Plc is in advanced talks to sell its Type 31 frigates to Denmark.
Trump's threats to pull assets from NATO have to have some knees knocking, whatever brave face the Europeans put on for public consumption. In many respects, they are a hollow man.
All this just as Merz announces that he and his coalition partners have agreed to a revised German pension plan, raising the state pension age from 63 to 70.
NO PENSIONS, NO WARSHIPS: Broken Germany To Raise Retirement Age to 70, as Plans Are Scrapped for Its Frigate Program That Already Cost Taxpayers $2,6 Billion, Germany is a Lost Country like to hole West World 🫵🏻🫵🏻
— AstonVillaFC (@fc_villa7422) June 24, 2026
Merz hopes to have the legislation passed before the Bundestag leaves for summer recess next month.
He insists the terms are 'non-negotiable.'
Germany's government-appointed pension commission presented a 33-point overhaul Tuesday that would gradually raise the retirement age to around 70 by the early 2090s.
The plan addresses a structural demographic problem that has only deepened over the years: about 23% of Germans, or 19 million people, were aged 65 or older in 2024, up from just 15% in 1991.
The proposal would return the retirement age to the level Otto von Bismarck first set when he introduced the world's earliest state pension system in 1889.
...The current pensionable age is set to reach 67 in the early 2030s, a figure locked in roughly 2 decades ago.
...The plan also calls for scrapping the scheme that allows workers with 45 years of contributions to retire at 63 without a pension reduction.
None of the money currently being poured into the migration crisis, Ukraine, or given away will be used to relieve the distress on the pension system for native Germans.
MERZ SETS DIFFERENT PRIORITIES: UKRAINE, MIGRATION AND FOREIGN AID OVER PENSIONS
— Russian Market (@runews) June 24, 2026
Merz Rejects Calls to Redirect Ukraine and Migration Spending to Pensions
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rebuffed demands to use funds earmarked for Ukraine, migration and development assistance… pic.twitter.com/uaQl3GzV1l
I think the populist parties, especially Alternativ for Germany (AfD)s are going to get even more popular.
Decline is a choice, and German governments seemed determined to keep choosing it.
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