Status: 12/21/2022 7:16 p.m
The defense minister only gave the manufacturers of the “Puma” a tight window of time to eliminate the problems with the tank. The industry has now sent technicians – and wants to eliminate the errors in a few weeks.
The armaments companies Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) want to repair the defective “Puma” infantry fighting vehicle in the next two to three weeks. The companies announced this in a joint statement. Some of the tanks are currently being examined at the Rheinmetall Unterlüß site in Lower Saxony, among other places, for the exact damage patterns.
Experts from KMW and Rheinmetall have been sent to the Bundeswehr locations where other “Puma” vehicles are located, it said. “All efforts are now directed towards repairing the vehicles in the next two to three weeks,” the companies said.
The industry wants to do everything in its power to ensure that the “Puma” remains the backbone of the German armored infantry group, the statement said.
Lambrecht: Only a short time window
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had previously given the industry a tight time window to repair the “Puma”. “I’ll give them a few weeks’ time because I need reliable systems and not ones that I might be able to use sometime in 2025,” said the SPD politician Deutschlandfunk. The industry knows that this project has no future if it does not show the government a perspective. Everyone knows that the ‘Puma’ is vulnerable. It cannot go on without the appropriate changes being made. Otherwise you have to look around for other systems, “and they exist”.
She also rejected criticism from the Union of a stress test that was carried out too late. With a view to Germany’s participation in the VJTF NATO task force, which begins on January 1, the exercise was scheduled exactly right, according to the SPD politician Deutschlandfunk. “That’s why an exercise months earlier would not have helped us at all, because such exercises were promising,” Lambrecht continued.
All 18 “Puma” with technical problems during practice
Over the weekend it became known that all 18 of the tanks used during a firing exercise by the Bundeswehr for participation in the VJTF NATO intervention force had failed. The tracked vehicle, plagued by numerous technical problems, was only declared fit for combat last year. Lambrecht decided not to buy any more Pumas until the weapon system was stable. In addition, the older “Marder” and not the modern “Puma” tanks are to be used for the NATO order. The tracked vehicle, plagued by numerous technical problems, was only declared fit for combat last year.
FDP: “Weapons systems must be suitable for war”
“Weapons systems must be suitable for war, not just suitable for training. Billions for high-tech systems are only justified if these weapons are clearly superior in combat,” said the defense policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Alexander Müller, the dpa news agency. “We will therefore change course in procurement, rely more on marketable and proven components and make it easier for new market participants to access the defense sector. This will also put traditional companies under pressure to only deliver functioning systems.” The goal is a powerful and operational Bundeswehr. Müller: “The time for compromises is over.”