Nope, the first helos of either type were introduced with the BGS the same year, in 1973. Bell 212 originally with 3 helos as a haphazard transport solution for the then-brand-new GSG9.

Next they’re gonna pull out the Marshall Plan argument.

who place so many caveats on their troop’s deployment to Afghanistan that it would be just as well that they are not there.

Soooo…. Canada is gonna send 10,000 men to replace them then? Including combat troops of course, because even if you don’t know it – there is combat going on in the north.

Dude, it’s not like the Germans army don’t want to do theire share of work.
It’s the stinkin Politichian back home.

You realize that if the German politicians were to actually listen to people, there would be exactly zero German soldiers in Afghanistan? (depending on survey 60% to 85% against deploying on foreign soil – and the same goes for a lot of European countries)

BTW anybody know if Crotale VT-1 is going to sea?

It’s been “at sea” for over a decade (Crotale Naval CN2 VT1). Just not the vertically launched version.

Meanwhile the rest of the NATO forces have not contributed proportionally and there have been complaints from Americans and British that the other NATO nations contributing less.

This kind of thought line always makes me wonder just what part of “such action as it deems necessary” people do not understand.

That is if we even consider AFG to still be an Art 5 case.

And holy ****, sferrin, please tell me you do not believe the Invasion of Iraq was part of the socalled “War on Terror”.

BGS used Bell 212 primarily for coastal regions, where the stronger turbines were useful. Typical SAR bases for Bell 212 were Bremen, Hamburg, Güstrow, Eutin, all with possible very strong crosswinds coming from the sea. For other regions, Bo-105 and UH1D had enough “reserves”.
Of the ten Bell 212, four were equipped for Sea SAR (even if the Bundeswehr was responsible for that primarily), four as regular SAR for coastal regions, two as utility helos for disaster relief (and police ops, including for GSG9).

why did Army/Luftwaffe never bought Bell212/Pumas or Super Pumas like the Bundesgrenzschutz/Bundespolizei did

For larger transports, the Army had its (relatively many) CH-53, the Luftwaffe had the Do-28D-2. No need for an intermediate helo.

Post Cold War, the Bundeswehr took over 101 Mi-8 from the NVA, which pretty much filled the same intermediate role that a Puma would have had. These served until 1994/95, in the VIP version until 1997. The VIP Mi-8S were replaced by Cougar, in fact.
For the remainder, the NH90 can be seen as their replacement in some way, after all the first NH90 TTH flew in 1995 already, and NAHEMA had signed off the design in 1992.