In April, Kyiv asked the armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) whether the “Panzerhaubitze 2000” could be purchased. According to a report, the green light will come from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in July. The deal would mean a huge increase in the volume of weapons supplied so far.
The federal government has apparently approved the sale of 100 modern self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. As the “Spiegel” reports, the responsible Federal Ministry of Economics issued the German armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) a manufacturing license for the “Panzerhaubitze 2000” type systems on July 13.
According to “Spiegel”, the Ukraine had already asked KMW in April whether the howitzers could be purchased directly from the manufacturer. KMW immediately submitted a corresponding offer. KMW confirmed the arms deal to “Spiegel” request. A spokesman said that KMW submitted a corresponding application to the economics department on July 11 and received approval two days later.
The spokesman put the budget for the 100 self-propelled howitzers at 1.7 billion euros. This volume would exceed the previous arms deliveries worth around 600 million euros many times over. At KMW, production of the weapon systems is to begin immediately. According to the report, it is still unclear when the first howitzers will go to Ukraine. The production of all howitzers should take several years.
In the past few weeks, the federal government had already delivered a number of “Panzerhaubitze 2000” systems from Bundeswehr stocks to the Ukraine. Previously, Ukrainian soldiers had been trained on the system in Germany. Depending on the ammunition used, the “Panzerhaubitze 2000” can shoot 30 to 40 kilometers.
At KMW, according to “Spiegel”, the modalities of production have been clarified with the Ukrainian side. Production will begin. The prerequisite for this is that sufficient material, including armor steel and other important components, can be procured. One is optimistic in this regard, the magazine quotes company circles. Sufficient staff is available. The howitzer is manufactured at a location in Germany that the company does not want to make public. The Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Group supplied the tubes for the military equipment.