Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Germany’s latest infantry fighting vehicles have suffered a series of crippling malfunctions which rendered them unable to operate just as their formation was set to assume one of the main roles in NATO’s quick reaction forces starting in 2023.
In a letter seen by Der Spiegel, Major General Ruprecht von Butler informed Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht that all 18 Pumas participating in manoeuvres in the south of Germany have broken down during the course of the eight-day exercises.
Von Butler, commander of 37th mechanised infantry brigade (Panzergrenadierbrigade 37), noted that the unit’s Leopard 2 main battle tanks had a readiness rate between 80 and 90 percent. Any breakdowns could, as a rule, be repaired hastily overnight.
“With the Puma company, a different picture emerged,” wrote von Butler in his letter to the Social-Democratic Party (SPD) minister. “Out of 18 mission-ready armoured vehicles the company began with, the readiness dropped to zero armoured vehicles during the final eight days of training.”
Obsolete replacement
According to von Butler, the final two operational Pumas broke down in an hour and a half at the firing range. Bringing the unit’s Puma fleet back to operational status could take as much as three or four months.
The German Puma is an infantry fighting vehicle intended to replace Bundeswehr’s venerable fleet of West German-era Marder vehicles, which were first deployed more than half a century ago. Touted as the best protected infantry vehicle in the world – as well as the most expensive per unit – the Pumas were a keystone of the modernisation of the German armed forces through German-built technology.
Some 350 units were produced since 2009 by a joint venture company founded by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rehinmetall, out of more than 400 units ordered by the Bundeswehr. The project was criticised by the German media over its inflating costs, especially as it was reported in 2019 that equipping 41 Pumas to participate in the NATO joint forces starting in 2023 would cost around 723 million euro.
NATO obligations
Following the incident, Lambrecht announced on Monday that Germany will cancel further Puma purchases, but stressed that the Bundeswehr will nevertheless fulfil its NATO obligations. The German army, already too often a target of ridicule among its NATO allies during joint exercises, will be sending Cold War-era combat vehicles on one of alliance’s most crucial deployments.
The Bundeswehr was set to take over the rotating lead role in NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) starting with 2023, in which Pumas were intended to be the key mechanised infantry asset.
The VJTF is the so-called spearhead element of NATO Response Force (NRF), a 40,000-strong high-readiness force composed of land, air, sea and special forces units capable of swift deployment to flashpoints, conflict or crisis areas. The VJTF is the “first responder” – a primarily ground force of around 5,000 troops ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice and to pave the way for arrival of follow-on reinforcements.
The VJTF was first deployed on a non-humanitarian mission after the Russian invasion of Ukraine this year, as NATO sent some of its elements to alliance members in Eastern Europe. At the June alliance summit in Madrid, NATO approved plans to increase the size of NRF to up to 300,000 troops in the future.
