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by triceratops 371 days ago
> Germany beats France at military spending and yet it's military is significantly less capable than France's.

No idea if that's true. But my impression was that France's military has been rather more...active post WW2 than Germany's. So maybe it's just about practice and readiness to go to war.
1 comments
CapricornNoble 370 days ago
The French are not just active, they have capabilities Germany straight-up lacks.

A nuclear aircraft carrier, nuclear ballistic missile submarines, solid overseas expeditionary capability (France could sustain a few thousand troops in Africa, Germany almost certainly could not match that), and a few amphibious assault ships, to name several big ones that immediately come to mind.

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triceratops 370 days ago
France developed a nuclear program immediately after WW2 in order to not depend on America for nuclear security. For obvious reasons Germany didn't do that.

Germany didn't need expeditionary capability after the war. It probably doesn't need to project force beyond its continent even today. France regularly had military entanglements in its former colonies, and probably still does. Capability is a function of necessity.

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