According to the Defense Ministry, the Puma infantry fighting vehicle is still not operational. The repair of 17 “Pumas” after the breakdown in December is not enough to give an unqualified green light to use the tank in the event of war. Another top-level discussion should provide clarity.
According to the assessment of the Federal Ministry of Defense, the infantry fighting vehicles “Puma” of the Bundeswehr are only conditionally fit for war, regardless of the acute defects that occurred in December. The “Puma” is “basically a powerful armored personnel carrier,” according to a status report from the ministry. “Currently, the system can only be operated in a closely interlinked system of troops, army repair logistics, project management and industry,” it said.
The “Puma” actually has “the ability to give the troops superiority in effectiveness”. For a “war-suitable system” the armored vehicles would also have to be “robust and reliable”. Therefore, another top-level discussion between the Bundeswehr, army repair logistics, project management and industry should take place in the near future.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the repairs to the armored personnel carriers that failed during a firing exercise mainly revealed minor and medium-sized damage. In some cases they were more serious, the ministry said. It “rates the AFV ‘Puma’ unchanged as a technologically high-quality weapon system,” it says.
After 18 of 18 infantry fighting vehicles deployed failed during a firing exercise, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht pulled the emergency brake and had the “Puma” withdrawn from a German NATO obligation in the VJTF Rapid Reaction Force.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. She also put an additional purchase of the “Puma” infantry fighting vehicle on hold.
Fundamental doubts about the system are now not formulated. In the meantime, 17 of the 18 “Puma” have been repaired. The 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). Doubts were expressed early on by the industry that significant technical problems could occur so frequently. Almost all of the damage was “trivial,” said a spokesman for the manufacturer Rheinmetall on Monday.
In the ultra-modern technology of the tank, computer errors can sometimes be corrected with a readout device. However, this can pose a great risk. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said: “Even supposedly simple failures can lead to death in combat. That is why it must be carefully investigated. And we are doing it.” In the briefing, it was explained that the failure of individual high-quality parts and fire damage would have to be examined further from a technical point of view. Restoring the armored personnel carriers’ full operational readiness also requires some additional work, “which is currently being worked on at full speed.”
