Modernization of those combat vehicles that are in the warehouses of the manufacturing company will take too much time, and the stocks of such weapons in the German army are quite modest.
Marder BMP” alt=”Der Spiegel: Germany is thinking about where to get Marder BMPs promised to Ukraine” />
Chancellor Olaf Sholz promised Kyiv 40 Marder BMPs. Now the German federal government is in a hurry to find the promised armored vehicles.
As the journalists of Der Spiegel found out, the BMP will most likely be taken from the warehouses of the Bundeswehr, although the German military itself lacks them. On Thursday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed away from his old position and promised armored vehicles to Ukraine. Thus, the head of the German government forced the German military, politicians and security experts to look for answers to difficult questions. Where to get these Marder? Who should provide them: the German army, whose stockpile of weapons is already modest, or industry?
On Friday, government spokesman Steffen Gebeschreit promised Berlin journalists an answer “by the end of the day.” The Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany had to give a “final answer” by that time. However, she never appeared. Instead, some German MPs received letters from the Ministry of Defense with a vague statement about the expected “contribution from industry and the Bundeswehr”. Defense Minister Kristina Labrecht's press release did not help to clarify the situation either. It stated that Mader BMPs would be handed over to Ukraine “from the manufacturer's or the German army's stock.” All this, according to Der Spiegel, indicates that Chancellor Scholz's promise will not be so easy to implement.
Read also: This month Ukrainian military personnel will begin training on the Bradley-Pentagon BMP
< p>Der Spiegel writes that the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall still has approximately 60 decommissioned Marder BMPs that can be repaired and upgraded. But that would take too much time. Since the federal government wants to hand over 40 Maders to provide a Ukrainian battalion by the end of March, the German army will have to surrender most of the BMPs it has in its own stock. In turn, Rheinmetall will compensate them in the following months by modernizing machines from its own stocks, representatives of the German government and sources in industrial circles told the publication.
The Bundeswehr told Der Spiegel that the transfer of Marder is a huge burden on the German military. But still, this process can be carried out. The Bundeswehr is currently preparing a training program for Ukrainian tankers, which should begin its work as soon as possible. The accelerated training course is expected to last between four and eight weeks. And, most likely, the Ukrainian military will be trained in the city of Munster in Lower Saxony.
Read also: Ambassador Makeyev hopes that after the Marder BMP, Germany will hand over Leopard tanks
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Der Spiegel writes that the problems with the transfer of the Mader BMP may be related to the long-term silence of the government amid negotiations with Paris and Washington. Until the joint statement of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Joe Biden on Thursday about the decision to transfer German and American BMPs to Ukraine, the federal office kept these plans a secret. Even the relevant units in the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany did not know about them. Because of this, neither the army nor the defense industry could prepare for the change in the position of the German government regarding armored vehicles for Ukraine. No one found out in advance where to get the promised equipment.
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