imperialman
Admiral
UK Urges Germany To Pull Its Weight More On Defense
By Gareth Jones/Reuters
Source: AWIN First
May 03 , 2012
Britain urged Germany on Wednesday to beef up its contribution to European defense and security, in line with its economic might, as the United States focuses increasingly on the Asia-Pacific region.
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he did not expect Germany, Europes largest economy, to spend more money in a time of general belt-tightening but said there was ample scope to improve the effectiveness of its forces.
Due to Germanys historic reluctance to deploy and operate overseas, I think it is self-evident that there is still huge potential in German defense structures to deliver more usable firepower to the (NATO) alliance, he told reporters.
Article lives here: http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_05_03_2012_p0-453997.xml&p=1
I tend to agree with Mr Hammond on this matter, though, I'm curious about what the opinion of other OT'ers may be on this issue.