(Franco Iacch)
10/12/15

http://www.difesaonline.it/mondo-militare/disastro-luftwaffe-se-la-russia-attaccasse-potrebbe-non-riuscire-fare-decollare-i

It is a disaster. If war with Russia outbreaks, the Luftwaffe could also risk not being able to raise their fighters. Budget cuts and lack of spare parts, led the German air force at a record low since it was reformed after the last war.

Despite the commitment of Berlin to deploying some Tornados in Syria (Germany already provides arms and training to the Kurdish peshmerga fighters), the powerful Luftwaffe can not commit itself against the Islamic Republic more than six Tornado multi-role fighters.

The problem is of a conceptual nature.
Germany uses three categories to classify its air force.
In the first they are all the aircraft in its inventory. In airplanes available (including systems currently out of service due to maintenance or repair) and the third are aircraft deployable (those ready for a mission). The German government then divided between its air force fighter total, those that could fly and those who really can fly.

The German example, the Eurofighter Typhoon is well suited. Berlin has 109 EFA-2000 in three different variants. As of 30 September last year were 74 EFA available, but only of these can be implemented 42, according to a report obtained from German aviation by Der Spiegel.

Same situation is with the Tornados.
Germany last year had a flight line that consists of 89 Tornados. 66 were those available, but only 38 were those implementable. Last year, the Luftwaffe was formed by a total strength of 198 multi-role fighter aircraft, but if a war broke out it could raise, on paper, only 80, thtats less than half.

80 jets could also be a substantial number, together with the other allied forces and those of the United States, but it is a misleading number. The German Ministry of Defence, in fact, does not distinguish fighters available to those implemented. It turns out that in September of the last year, German Typhoons ready for combat were only eight. In 2015 the number of German Tornados deployable declined further to 30.

Accounts in hand, if war should break out Germans could raise thirty Tornados and eight to twenty (overstatement) Typhoons on an inventory of 198 aircraft.

(Photo: Bundeswehr)

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IZAKOVIC