Category: Headlines

It was just an accident - wasn't it?

It was just an accident - wasn't it?

Posted by | 27 Dec 2024 | , , | 0

The destruction of the Balticconnector gas pipeline still raises questions a year later. And China is preventing clarification with just a few words. It has been over a year since a sudden drop in pressure was recorded in the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia on 8 October 2023. Parallel data cables - 60 and 20 miles apart - were also damaged in a corresponding time window. A year earlier, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines further west in the Baltic Sea off Bornholm had already been blown up. As with Nord Stream 2022, the emerging suspicion of sabotage was confirmed in 2023,...

Read More
Disaster on Christmas Eve

Disaster on Christmas Eve

Posted by | 26 Dec 2024 | , , , | 0

A good 200 years ago, two ships sank in a storm off Denmark. Today, a remarkable museum in Thorsminde commemorates the many dead - and the dangers of the Danish west coast. In mid-December 1811, Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the Baltic Sea, made a fatal decision that he later came to regret. Persuaded by his deputy Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, his flag captain David Oliver Guion and the captain of the ship of the line HMS Defence, he sent the damaged ship of the line HMS St. George with a crew of 765 men and civilian men and women accompanied by HMS Defence with 550 men and women, contrary to his convictions....

Read More
The largest naval exercise in the world

The largest naval exercise in the world

Posted by | 25 Dec 2024 | , , | 0

At the end of June, the biennial multinational manoeuvre Rimpac took place on and in the waters around Hawaii. German Navy ships took part for the first time. A total of 29 nations with around 25,000 people took part in the Rimpac 2024 exercise, which was led by the US Navy. Vice Admiral John Wade, the commanding officer of the US 3rd Fleet, was in overall command as Combined Task Force Commander. In addition to the American armed forces, the navies of various Pacific littoral states took part, from Australia, Ecuador and Indonesia to Japan and Peru. A number of "non-local" nations also took part: Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Great Britain, India, Israel, Italy,...

Read More
How a childish idea catches on

How a childish idea catches on

Posted by | 24 Dec 2024 | , , | 0

In a bureaucracy, few things are as persistent as bureaucracy. Now the flood of bureaucracy is to be reduced with the help of bureaucratic de-bureaucratisation processes. The idea came from an office administrator at the Ministry of Defence working from home. She was fed up with emails and her nagging three-year-old, who asked how much money mum got for each email. Bingo! What if you made administrative work subject to a fee? Administration, staff work, rules of procedure? It should ensure standardised, regulated action in the management of authorities. This can be as complicated as you like, and terribly compartmentalised - broken down into processes. They are also called processes, who wants to proceed? In terms of content, decisions on matters of principle, draft legislation and the management of...

Read More
Clothing for the troops

Clothing for the troops

Posted by | 23 Dec 2024 | , , | 0

Modernisations and subsequent procurements commissioned In a press release dated 19 December 2024, the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) somewhat awkwardly announces that it intends to procure new clothing and is "already procuring modern and high-quality clothing and personal equipment for the performance of their duties while providing the best possible protection" for soldiers and civilian employees. It goes on to say: "The implementation of the follow-up solution in the Bundeswehr's clothing management, which began in 2023, has been continuously developed since then. To this end, the existing framework agreement with Bundeswehr Clothing Management (BwBM) GmbH must be regularly amended. The fifth amendment agreement signed today includes both new...

Read More
en_GBEnglish
de_DEGerman en_GBEnglish