In principle, I agree. However, in detail there are the same issues and more as when everything was outsourced to China:

• While there are stable and democratic states in Africa, a lot of the resources for manufacturing might will come from not so stable parts. I am looking at Congo as an example in particular.
• If you think about it, it is Colonialism 2.0: Cheap labourers turning basic resources into goods that are too expensive for them to buy themselves, which in return are sold for cheap in relation to local production costs in other countries.
• Exporting the environmentally harmful jobs elsewhere makes us look good on paper, but has drastic consequences for locals.

While China has until recently and to a significant extent been able to turn the second point around, the environment is where this whole plan might come apart before it even can be put into practice: The African continent is possibly most directly impacted by climate change. In the past, present and future. Don’t get me wrong: We are all going to suffer. But the African combination of geolocation and political and social stability is a powder keg.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to leave Africa and its people in the dust. If we can build a relationship on a basis of mutual trust and long-term benefit, let’s go for it. However, I am highly sceptical that in our current political climate the EU and its countries or, let alone companies, would be going to invest more than the absolute minimum to get any form of production going. And investing the absolute minimum to extract the most benefit equals colonialism 2.0.

But it’s such a simple and easy solution to our problems! /s

Well, Elon and German far-right politician Alice Weidel claimed in a recent talk that Hitler was a communist…

Well, since the only persons on his mind appear to be Trump and himself: Yeah, everybody’s cheating.

Probably yes. But in case the Poles are serious this time, we have to talk about the Ostgebiete as well.

On a more cynical note: Ukraine grows a lot of Russian obituaries, which the EU doesn’t have to, should they try to invade the Baltics once they are successful in Ukraine.

Well, Christianity started as a doomsday cult. So I guess old habits die hard.

Except they won’t because the gravitational pull generated by a human body is so low that the gases expelled are likely moving faster than escape velocity.

Engines in space don’t produce visible smoke because A) they are precision engineered to burn 100% of the fuel they are supplied with, and what is colloquially known as smoke is unburned particles. All this awesome smoke that engulfs rockets before they take off? Most of it is vapour from water under the platform, protecting the structure from melting. B) Thrusters in general are build to expel the reaction mass as fast as possible in order to go as fast as possible with the least amount of fuel.

So yeah, you are trying to compare what happens in a cars’ engine with what’s going on in the exhaust: It’s the same stuff but under very different circumstances.

No, I am totally not. You are hung up on the part where you think that for something resembling smoke to exist, an atmosphere is necessary. Have you never seen RCS thruster being fired in zero gravity?

Yes, there won’t be fields of funnels causing smoke clouds that block the view from Earth. But exhaust products being expelled into the vacuum causing measurable dimming effects? Certainly at some point.

But the moon has its own gravity field. Just not enough to keep a permanent atmosphere. Also, not having an atmosphere doesn’t mean the space above the surface is devoid of matter. In fact, even in interstellar space, you can find particles. And an atmosphere is not something that’s holding particles in. An atmosphere is made up of particles in a dense field gravitationally bound to a celestial body.

I really don’t understand what you are trying to say here. Yes, the process of diffusion is faster on the moon, but even on earth every second lighter parts of the atmosphere escapes into space (and heavier particles that pass by are attracted by gravity).

Over time yes. But not instantaneous. So depending on the amount, it is possible to have smog on the moon.

Bold of you to assume that our Bundeswehr or Luftwaffe have any helicopters in a ready state.

Not having an atmosphere doesn’t mean that gases and particles will simply vanish. The moon just doesn’t have enough of a gravitational pull to keep them around for long.

I’m very much interested in what they intend to use to shoot the drones. Missiles? Way to expensive. Buck shot? Inaccurate at range. Regular bullets? Flies way too far in case of a miss. EW? Not sure the Bundeswehr got any and if not it’ll take fives years of debate if this is technology we actually need and another ten to procure the necessary equipment.

Hey, don’t disregard the value of scrap metal!

Such as?