Marder/Bild
A few Marder infantry fighting vehicles, which were withdrawn from service with Germany, have already been modernized and are ready to be sent to Ukraine.
This was announced by the CEO of Rheinmetall, which produces these machines, Armin Papperger. He noted that the company is in the process of repairing 100 Marder armored personnel carriers, and the first vehicles are already fully prepared.
Equipment is ready for shipment to Ukraine
Papperger explained that it would be up to the federal government to decide when and where they would leave. There are already photos of five modernized Marder, the cost of each is from 850 thousand euros to 1 million, depending on the configuration. Also, 88 Leopard 1 tanks and other Leopard 2 tanks are in the Rheinmetall warehouse for modernization.
The war in Ukraine had a positive impact on the position of the enterprise. Rheinmetall's share price is up 150 percent and production is in full swing. Therefore, Rheinmetall wants to increase the power.
We expect a significant increase in sales up to 20% per year and are in the process of increasing our capacity. We can at least triple the production of ammunition over the next 12 months, the production of armored vehicles can be doubled because we can rebuild most of the Cold War infrastructure very quickly,” said Rheinmetall CEO.
To deal with increased demand, the company wants to hire 2,500 new employees (now the number of employees: 25,000). The sudden interest in Marder is an unexpected stroke of luck for Rheinmetall. Because there are already more of these cars and suddenly they are needed again because of the war in Ukraine.
According to Papperger, the Marder is still a powerful combat vehicle and is used by the German armed forces, for example, in Lithuania. For Marder, which will update for Ukraine, the focus is on the safety of the fighters – they must rely on the vehicle, especially in critical situations.
Will Ukraine get Marder
- The media write, that Chancellor Scholz does not want to provide heavy weapons to Ukraine because he fears they will be used on Russian soil.
- In May, Scholz spoke of an exchange in which his country gives Greece 50 German Marder armored personnel carriers, and Greece supplies Ukraine with old Soviet-made armored vehicles.
- According to media reports, we are talking about Marder, which Rheinmetall agreed to transfer to Ukraine back in March. Greece also criticized Scholz's proposal and called it too slow.
