All 18 tanks on exercises suffer problems in blow to German contribution to January Nato force
“The latest failures of the Puma tanks are a harsh setback,” Lambrecht in a statement earlier on Monday.
She ordered a probe into what went wrong, and said until the vehicles prove “stable” there won’t be any new orders. “Our troops must be able to rely on weapons systems that are robust and stable in combat,” Lambrecht added.Lambrecht said that Germany would still fulfil its obligations towards the alliance, and instead of the Pumas would use ageing Marder tanks.
A defence ministry spokesperson said work was being conducted at full speed on “damage assessment”, adding there had been an “unusually high failure rate” with the tanks.Berlin earlier this year, casting aside a postwar reluctance to spend big on its military to face the threat from Russia. It is also buying dozens of US-made F-35 fighter jets but that project has run into problems, with the defence ministry raising concerns about delays and additional costs.