Germany’s military will continue to use the Puma armored fighting vehicle, despite recent technical failures, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said.
(Bloomberg) — Germany’s military will continue to use the Puma armored fighting vehicle, despite recent technical failures, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said.
“The armed forces stand by the Puma,” Lambrecht said on Friday after a meeting with the chairmen of Rheinmetall AG and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG, whose joint venture produces the Puma. “Both sides — we and the industry — have understood that we will have to do our homework.”
After a series of technical failures in December, Lambrecht had called on both companies to fix the Puma which is meant to replace the German army’s aging Marder vehicles.
“We were able to fix all 18 Pumas by New Year,” Rheinmetall Chairman Armin Papperger said Friday. “The Puma is the best armored personnel carrier in the world.”
Prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition has created a special fund worth €100 billion ($108 billion) to try to reverse the decline in the country’s army.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.