What are you fighting about?

Within the Bundeswehr, the need for a modern medium-range air defense missile system as well as a transport aircraft had been identified for some time. Eventually, the service life of their predecessor systems was drawing to a close. Nevertheless, both the chosen air defense missile system MEADS and the transport aircraft A400M became the focus of a debate that continuously raged in professional circles and periodically flared up in public over their merits or lack thereof. Since German defense policy generally, and particularly the lucrative defense projects, sometimes give rise to fundamental discussions, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the decision-making processes of these two significant programs. Why were the programs so controversial in political, public, and academic perception? Did the red-green federal government misdirect its defense policy regarding these projects, as was occasionally claimed? In order to answer these fundamental questions, this work takes a look both in front of and behind the scenes of both programs.