The German authorities are forced to withdraw infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) from stock in order to supply them to Ukraine. Spiegel writes about it.
Berlin announced the delivery of 40 infantry fighting vehicles to Kyiv on January 5. According to the promise of the German authorities, it should be carried out before the end of March. According to Spiegel, the defense concern Rheinmetall has about 60 decommissioned Marder infantry fighting vehicles that can be recycled. However, this scenario cannot be implemented because the upgrade would take too long.
Spiegel writes that the turmoil surrounding the transfer of BMPs to Ukraine is due to the fact that the Bundeswehr kept this fact secret to the last. Prior to this, Germany several times refused to transfer the cars to Kyiv. The army and the military industry of Germany were warned of this only in the first week of January.
“Since the government has not prepared for the next delivery of the Marder BMP, the Bundeswehr now has to empty its warehouses, which are already poorly stocked. A far-sighted policy works differently, ”criticized the actions of the German authorities, the deputy chairman of the Defense Committee, Henning Otte.
The Bundeswehr is armed with about 370 BMP Marder, but many of them are subject to major repairs. As of the end of November, their readiness was only 62%, Spiegel writes, citing an internal document from the Ministry of Defense.