Rheinmetall Landsysteme is once again supplying Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) at the behest of the German government, the company announced on 23 June 2023.
Awarded in May 2023, the order is worth a figure “in the lower-two-digit million-euro range”, Rheinmetall noted. The Marders are due to be delivered this summer.
Rheinmetall already shipped the first of 20 Marder IFVs to Ukraine on 21 March 2023, while Ukraine received a further 20 of Marder IFVs directly from existing Bundeswehr stocks.
In addition to the Marders ordered to date, Rheinmetall can make a further 60 available, the company said. Work on this is already underway at Rheinmetall’s plants in Kassel and Unterlüß. Up to 10 IFVs can be delivered per month.
Under the German government’s Ringtausch programme Greece will also be receiving 40 Marder IFVs, which will also be shipped this summer. The Ringtausch programme is a multilateral equipment exchange programme designed to support Ukraine’s war effort in the face of Russian aggression. In co-operation with Germany’s European neighbours and NATO partners, Soviet-era heavy equipment from those nations is being transferred to Ukraine in exchange for surplus Western-made systems.
Rheinmetall is taking part in various Ringtausch exchanges, which involve the armed forces of Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. The vehicles being made available are overhauled Marder 1A3 systems formerly operated by the Bundeswehr.
As early as spring 2022, Rheinmetall began restoring the IFVs to a state of immediate combat readiness at its own expense at its sites in Unterlüß and Kassel. Developed for the Bundeswehr and still in service with the German Army, the Marder IFVs have been steadily modernised, undergoing repeated combat upgrades over the course of their service lives.
Peter Felstead
