During a shooting exercise by the Bundeswehr, all 18 deployed “Puma” infantry fighting vehicles failed one after the other. Minister Lambrecht takes the vehicles from the NATO force VJTF and questions the system as a whole. Now the manufacturer has repaired everything and speaks of small things.
Almost all of the “Puma” armored personnel carriers that failed during a target practice have been repaired. “The assessment of the vehicles was completed at the end of last week, almost all of the damage was minor,” said a spokesman for the manufacturer Rheinmetall. “Of 18 vehicles, 17 are driving again.” A comprehensive repair was only necessary on one of the vehicles on which a cable fire had occurred. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said that there was a status of the damage, but he did not provide any precise information. From this, a plan will be drawn up with all those involved as to how the “Puma” “could also be used under combat conditions in the long term”. This will “certainly take a few more days”.
After 18 of 18 armored personnel carriers deployed failed during a shooting exercise, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht pulled the emergency brake and had the “Puma” removed from a NATO obligation in the VJTF Rapid Reaction Force. The German soldiers reported ready for action are now equipped with the older “Marder” infantry fighting vehicle.
So far, questions about how serious the technical problems were or whether there were operating or maintenance errors have remained unanswered. The “Puma” armored personnel carrier was only declared combat-ready in 2021 and is being built jointly by the armaments companies Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).
