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Infantry fighting vehicle "Puma" during a combat demonstration (February 2022)
Photo: Philipp Schulze / dpa
After the debacle surrounding the operational readiness of the modern PUMA infantry fighting vehicle shortly before Christmas, 17 of the 18 vehicles that failed have now been repaired.
This emerges from a classified report to parliament that is available to SPIEGEL.
In the letter, Christine Lambrecht's Ministry of Defense informed the representatives in the Bundestag's Defense Committee for the first time about the extent of the problems.
The "Puma" is considered one of the most modern tanks in the Bundeswehr.
During a firing exercise in December, however, all of the 18 armored personnel carriers deployed gradually failed.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) then had the "Puma" removed from a German NATO obligation in the VJTF Rapid Reaction Force.
Although 17 tanks have now been repaired, the "failure of individual high-value parts and fire damage" made further technical investigations necessary, according to the letter to Parliament.
There was a "differentiated picture of predominantly small and medium-sized damage, but also some more serious damage".
According to SPIEGEL information, there was a major cable fire in the interior of one of the tanks.
The document emphasizes that the German leadership of NATO's Rapid Reaction Force, the VJTF, remains unaffected by the problems with the Puma.
Units would now be equipped with the »Marder« infantry fighting vehicle instead of the Puma.
The VJTF is regarded as the spearhead of NATO and must be able to be deployed within a few days in the event of an escalation, for example on the eastern border of the alliance.
The fact that Germany now has to use the less modern »Marder« in the prestige unit of NATO of all things highlights the ailing material situation of the troops.
Conditionally operational
According to the letter, the Ministry of Defense continues to see the Puma as a "high-tech weapon system".
He has »without a doubt very promising performance data and the ability to give the troops superiority in effectiveness in combat.
For a war-ready system, this superior effectiveness must go hand in hand with robustness and reliability in use and operation.« Experience to date has shown that the Puma can currently only be operated with a »closely interlinked technical and logistical concept consisting of troops, army repair logistics, project management and industry«.
In the complicated passage, the ministry encapsulates the basic problem of the "puma".
In the Bundeswehr, not only since the total failure shortly before Christmas, has it been said that the tank has always been prone to failure due to its complexity, the large number of digital control units and the automated turret.
In fact, the "Puma" can only be used if repair teams from the industry are permanently on site to fix error messages.
It is not clear how this is supposed to succeed in a real war operation.
"Even supposedly simple failures can lead to death in combat," emphasized a spokesman for the ministry.
Test for Lambrecht
In view of the bad news before Christmas, Minister Lambrecht had already made it clear that she saw the armaments industry as having a duty to solve the problems.
In the report, your company announces that you will be invited "to a top-level meeting involving industry, the troops and the procurement organization in the near future" in which "further action to improve the use" of the weapon system should be determined.
A retrofit option for the "Puma" that had been planned for months and the purchase of a further tranche of "Pumas" in a more modern design was on hold until reliability improved, which had to be proven in exercises.
For the minister, the "Puma" problem is now becoming a kind of test.
Struck by the New Year's Eve video, which was perceived as embarrassing, Christine Lambrecht now has to show that she can manage to increase the reliability of the "Puma".
Time is of the essence.
As early as 2025, Berlin wants to provide NATO with a ready-to-use infantry division, at least that's what Lambrecht announced in Brussels.
For the division, however, the Bundeswehr can hardly fall back on the decrepit »Marder«.
Either the problems with the »Puma« will be solved by then or Lambrecht will have to look for an alternative tank very quickly.
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