gatnerd said:

But the psychological effect I think is worth evaluating. This tank with dual, rapid fire autocannons firing nothing but tracers is absolutely terrifying, and I think could very well induce soldiers / insurgents to call it day in an area in which it appears vs trying to take it on.

If this is what you are going for you don't need two 30 mm and no 50 t vehicle.
A single 20 mm Rh202 loaded with HEI will do fine and this gun can be mounted on much smaller vehicles. In Afghanistan the German troops experienced an effect similar to what you describe as soon as 20 mm AC armed vehicles engaged or after some time and experience even as soon as they showed up on the scene. The insurgents immediatly disengaged.

A single Rh202 has about the ROF of the two 30 mm of the BMPT. Usually all rounds are with tracers. If they fire bursts its quite a spectacle.

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SPz Marder Gefechtsschießen Griffin Sword TrÜbPl Jägerbrück

Griffin Sword: SPz Marder Gefechtsschießen mit Leuchtspur auf dem Truppenübungsplatz Jägerbrück bei Torgelow.

No HEI just TP. So you have to immagine all the small explosions. On German shooting ranges the use of any sort of HE round usually is forbidden.

gatnerd said:

While German re-armament seems somewhat languid

Its out right not existent.
So far now oders have been placed and no funds allocated. Let alone spend.
Not even to replace the stuff that allready went to UA allready. Most of the ammo delivered has not been paied either. Currently the German Government is in dept at the Defense Industry. Who funny enough last week started to threaten legal action.
Its a complete and utter cluster fuck.

German submarines next ?

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Speaking of all tracers 

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ROK K263 Vulcan

K263 is a mobile air defense variant of K200A1 fitted with a 20mm anti-aircraft gun. In addition to low altitude airborne targets, K263 may engage ground tar...

Farmplinker said:

Honestly, the US needs a new energetics plant or two

That would be great, as well as arguably even more important, a factory that produces the precursor chemicals for energetics. (and medicine precursors would also be wise...)

schnuersi said:

A single Rh202 has about the ROF of the two 30 mm of the BMPT. Usually all rounds are with tracers. If they fire bursts its quite a spectacle

Very impressive, that little guy was hauling ass in terms of ROF. 

....

"Government is in dept at the Defense Industry. Who funny enough last week started to threaten legal action.
Its a complete and utter cluster fuck."

Ah, thats a bummer. I had hoped the lack of news on my end was just the english papers/blogs missing some German activity...

Is your read on this that this is typical government incompetence (of which I'm quite familiar with here, as I'm sure we all are) or is the vibe that this is something more deliberate? 

I know the previous Defense lady got the boot. Any sign the new Defense head will be better?

Mr. T (MrT4) said:

German submarines next

That would be completely bananas. But also pretty silly given the time it would take to train a sub crew (among numerous other issues...)

However in some implausible parallel universe where this did happen and it worked, it would be a hell of an ad for German sub exports. 

That said, I'd much rather the US bought a bunch of sneaky German U-boats for Taiwan... 

gatnerd said:

Is your read on this that this is typical government incompetence (of which I'm quite familiar with here, as I'm sure we all are) or is the vibe that this is something more deliberate?

As far as I can tell its both. There are several things coming together.
Of course there is a deep reluctance of the current administration to give funds to the military. So in their eyes every day that passes without the military getting even a cent is a good day. So they don't really go out of their way to speed things up.
Which is pretty hard to begin with. The entire organisation of the DoD and the armed forces has been so starved of resources the last 30+ years they don't even know to handle such sums anymore. The organisational knowledge is gone. Furthermore the regulations have been changed so every penny is bitten trough first. Twice if possible. This means lots and lots of bureaucracy and paperwork to get funds released. The regulations and procedures have not been changed. So they handle a 100 billion budget in the same way as the meager millions they go befor.
So far no streamlining of processes or adjustment of regulations has even been talked about.
Then there is the problem of inflation and rising cost. This is pretty new for Germany. So again no procedures and regulations. The original plan for the 100 billion had to be canned allready because the prices have changed. This results in a technically wrong plan which means it is rejected. A new plan has to be made. Which means back to square one. Get new offers and prices. Evaluate. Formulate a new spending plan. Get it approved by the parilament... which in such a dynamic situations means prices have changed yet again... its a vicious circle. This results in the spending plan being in bureaucratic limbo. Until regulations are adjusted it is unlikely that it will get out any time soon.
In the mean time the world is not standing still. The industry doesn't wait. They simply move on.

gatnerd said:

I know the previous Defense lady got the boot. Any sign the new Defense head will be better?

Besides the "finally a male secretary of defense" I don't see how things should get significalntly better. After all he is a career politician from the same party as the lady befor. He also has never served or worked in the real economy.
He is allready trying to raise the morale though. He visited the troops in his first week. Even wore a standard issue camo jacket, which his predecessor refursed to to, and adressed all soldiers by their correct rank, something his predecessor also refused to do. He also is from the security and defense sector of his party. So maybe some things will change but so far it allways has been improve things, make it faster, leaner, cheaper but do not change anything. Which did not work. Unless this approach is thrown overboard there will be no real improvement.

U212NFS would be brilliant for the Black Sea

Diesel subs can't really stay at sea that long so how would this sub arm, fuel, and generally not get wrecked first time it at the base, I don't see any armored submarine pens in Ukraine.

In any case while we are at slicing a dicing Germany like kebab, Kriegsmarine has 6 subs but like most of the German military its all in a state of disrepair so only one sub is kinda in active duty rest is in docks undergoing repairs