One must consider it a success that only one German Eurofighter remained stranded on the long journey to Singapore.
With this weapon system, too, the Bundeswehr repeatedly has problems with operational readiness.
But the Luftwaffe's excursion to the Indo-Pacific is not primarily a performance show, but a strategic decision: Germany is signaling its readiness for military engagement in what is perhaps already the geopolitically most important region of the world.
A German frigate came last year, now it's the turn of fighter planes.
Germany is too weak militarily
As is customary in such cases, the Bundeswehr does not name a potential adversary or scenario to be discussed.
But of course it is clear what the German partners in Asia are preparing for: a possible conflict with China.
Germany is still too weak militarily to really make a difference in an emergency.
Politically, however, the federal government is pursuing a course that, as in the case of Russia, will make it difficult in the long term to maintain untroubled relations with Beijing in the name of foreign trade.
Germany is joining an American-led anti-Chinese alliance that could be put to the test more quickly than many in Berlin might realize, not only in the Taiwan conflict.