Sir, – It’s doubtful that Vladimir Putin will be too worried that Germany is buying the Israeli Arrow 3 missile defence system (“Germany drops legal commitment on Nato defence spending”, World, August 18th).
After all, the announcement was made in the same week that a Luftwaffe Airbus jet carrying Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, broke down in Abu Dhabi.
She was forced to continue her journey on a commercial airliner.
In 2018, Der Spiegel reported that only 10 of the Luftwaffe’s 128 Eurofighters were mission ready due to technical issues.
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Since then there have been reports of problems in the Bundeswehr (Gerrman army) relating to shortages of everything from modern tanks to night-vision equipment.
Germany seems only too willing to rely on its Nato allies in the US, Poland and the Baltic states to hold the line against a revanchist Russia. – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.