German Engineering Fails

Germany has more problems than Muslim refugees. Its much vaunted engineering prowess has recently been compromised by a series of major boondoggles. The word Schadenfreude pops quickly into mind.

Today’s calamity concerns a warship, designed in 2005, the year that Angela Merkel became Chancellor. After more than twelve years the ship has been completed… but it does not work. It cannot do what it is supposed to do. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Germany’s naval brass in 2005 dreamed up a warship that could ferry marines into combat anywhere in the world, go up against enemy ships and stay away from home ports for two years with a crew half the size of its predecessor’s.

First delivered for sea trials in 2016 after a series of delays, the 7,000-ton Baden-Württemberg frigate was determined last month to have an unexpected design flaw: It doesn’t really work.

Defense experts cite the warship’s buggy software and ill-considered arsenal—as well as what was until recently its noticeable list to starboard—as symptoms of deeper, more intractable problems: Shrinking military expertise and growing confusion among German leaders about what the country’s armed forces are for.

That’s leadership for you. Better yet, the ship is ill suited to today’s challenges. The Journal continues:

Even if the ship can be fixed, however, some naval experts worry it would struggle to defend itself against terrorist groups supplied with antiship missiles. And in the face of a Russian naval buildup in the Baltic Sea, it lacks its predecessor’s sonar and torpedo tubes, making it a sitting duck for submarines.

If they ever fix its problems, they can call the ship: The Sitting Duck.

But, that’s not all folks. German engineers have also messed up several infrastructure projects. At least they have a diverse culture and have welcomed in over a million refugees. Note well that the values that define diversity contradict the values that value efficiency.

A litany of bungled infrastructure projects has tarred Germany’s reputation for engineering prowess. There is still no opening date for Berlin’s new €6 billion ($7.2 billion) airport, which is already 10 years behind schedule, and the redesign of Stuttgart’s railway station remains stalled more than a decade after work on the project started. Observers have blamed these mishaps on poor planning and project management, which also figured in major setbacks for several big military projects.

Other weapons procurement projects have also failed:

But experts say military efforts have also been hampered by the lack of a strategic vision for Germany’s armed forces, resulting in vague, hard-to-execute briefs. Before the frigate project foundered, a contract to build a new helicopter hit snags, costs for a new rifle overran and an ambitious drone project simply failed to get off the ground.

Germany is presumed to be Europe’s leading industrial power. But, perhaps because it got seduced by today’s multicultural ideologies, it seems increasingly incapable of building things that work.

[Addendum: My thanks to Trigger Warning-- in the comments section-- for offering some information about the German Defense Minister...a physician who was previously the Minister of Labor and Social affairs.