Männerinnovation

Zwar bemüht sich der im zweiten Anlauf gewählte Bundeskanzler der Bundesrepublik Deutschland sehr ernsthaft, traditionell männliche Empathielosigkeit und Egozentrik zur Schau zu stellen, aber auf der internationalen Bühne kann er mit den mittlerweile üblichen Ego-Dimensionen einfach nicht mithalten.

Zum Glück ist angesichts des Versagens der politischen Klasse die deutsche Industrie zur Stelle, in diesem Fall in Person des Rheinmetall-Chefs:

When I brought up the drones that Ukraine has used so effectively against Russian tanks, the company’s chairman and CEO, Armin Papperger, was withering in his dismissal. This is how to play with Legos, he told me.

He did not expect them to disrupt his industry. What is the innovation of Ukraine? Papperger asked. They don’t have some technological breakthrough. They make innovations with their small drones, and they say, ‘Wow!’ And that’s great. Whatever. But this is not the technology of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, or Rheinmetall.

It is true: Ukraine’s drones are assembled mostly from imported parts, including rotors, motors, cameras, and computer chips. Most of these components come from China, where a single company produces more than 80 percent of the world’s small drones. But their cheapness—especially when compared with the elaborate weapons systems produced by companies such as Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall—is precisely what makes them so devastating. For only a few hundred dollars, Ukraine’s drones can do serious damage to a military vehicle worth millions. They have, in effect, done to tanks and cannons what muskets once did to knights in shining armor. What Papperger called Legos have gone a long way to saving an entire country. [...]

Ukraine now makes more drones than any democracy in the world, and wealthy nations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are lining up to buy them. But when I asked the CEO of Rheinmetall what that could mean for his business model, he bristled. Who is the biggest drone producer in Ukraine? Papperger demanded. I listed the ones that I had visited in Kyiv two weeks earlier, Fire Point and Skyfall, which make hundreds of thousands of drones a month for the Ukrainian armed forces. It’s Ukrainian housewives, Papperger said of their factories. They have 3-D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones, he said. This is not innovation.

Diese souverän breitbeinige Arroganz hat durchaus Weltniveau und verfehlt ihre Wirkung weder in Deutschland noch in der Ukraine. Die Kriegsministerien aller Herren Länder werden es kaum erwarten können, viele Milliarden in teure und drohnenanfällige Militärtechnologie des 20. Jahrhunderts zu investieren, die von einem innovativen Prachtkerl wie Armin Papperger feilgeboten wird.