Mr Sumlenny said German post-war thinking plays a role too. “They were designed by a generation of German manufacturers that hadn’t seen war, and so tended to overcomplicate the system. “Older systems, designed in the 1960s by those who actually saw war, are far more useful on the battlefield but have weaker armour.”

Yeah but Rheinmetall can’t charge the government megabucks for a simple system can it? They have to justify bumping another 0 on the end of the price somehow, an increase in complexity is the perfect way to do this.