Germany to send around 40 Marder armored carriers to Ukraine

Berlin, The Gulf Observer: Germany aims to supply around 40 Marder armored personnel carriers to Ukraine in this year’s first quarter, the government said Friday.

Officials gave more details of the plan, which marks another notable shift forward in Germany’s weapons deliveries to Ukraine, after Germany announced its intention to send the Marder APCs following a phone call between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday.

“These 40 vehicles should be ready in the first quarter already so that they can be handed over to Ukraine,” Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, told reporters in Berlin. Germany plans to train Ukrainian forces to use the vehicles, and Hebestreit said experts expect that process to take around eight weeks.

Germany has already given significant military aid, including howitzers, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and an IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system, with three more of those set to follow this year.

Scholz has long been wary of pressure to supply the Marder and other, heavier Western-made vehicles such as tanks, insisting that Germany wouldn’t go it alone with such deliveries. Officials noted that other countries hadn’t supplied any. But this week, France, the U.S. and Germany all announced plans to send comparable armored vehicles that fall short of tanks.

Germany also said Thursday that it will follow the U.S. in supplying a Patriot air defense missile battery to Ukraine. That was at the request of the U.S. and also is expected in the first quarter, Hebestreit said.

It comes on top of Patriot systems that Germany has sent or plans to send to Slovakia and Poland.