Rheinmetall has 16 Marder IFVs ready for delivery to Ukraine army


As reported by Martin Schmidt, ARD Capital Studio, in Tagesschau.de, the German company Rheinmetall has largely restored 16 Marder 1A3 armored personnel carriers from old Bundeswehr stocks at its own expense, the company announced at the request of the NDR and ARD capital studio. They are deliverable, but so far there is no export license for them from the federal government. Rheinmetall has already started processing 14 more vehicles. If necessary, 70 more vehicles from old stock could be made usable again.
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Marder 1A3 of the Bundeswehr/german army (Picture source: Army Recognition)


Contradicting currently circulating fake news, the German government has so far refused to allow Western-style armored personnel carriers or main battle tanks to be delivered to Ukraine, citing agreements of this kind with other partner countries that provide military support to Ukraine. Only anti-aircraft Gepards have been cleared for delivery to Ukraine. "No country has yet delivered western-style armored personnel carriers or main battle tanks, and we have agreed with our partners that we will not go it alone by the Germans," said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on September 12. So far, Western allies of Ukraine delivered "only" M109 self-propelled howitzers, which are not main battle tanks nor armored personnel carriers or IFVs.

The agreement that no country would deliver armored personnel carriers or battle tanks was "not set in stone", said SPD foreign policymaker Michael Roth on Deutschlandfunk. Corresponding talks could "go very quickly," said Roth, who is also chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee in the Bundestag. To his knowledge, "only the USA and Germany could deliver these tanks, which are now also expected from Ukraine."