The new embarrassment about the “breakdown tanks” has consequences. The German Bundeswehr remains a major restructuring case.
Vienna/Berlin. The Bundeswehr recently suffered a disaster on the North German plain, at a training ground between Hamburg and Hanover. In the end, 18 of the 18 Puma armored vehicles were defective – that is, all of them. The total failure came at an inopportune time, because armored vehicles would be made available to NATO from January 1st, and it has a consequence: on Monday, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) convened a meeting of emergency, complained of the “severe setback” and pulled it Emergency brake: Lambrecht suspended the purchase of additional Puma armored vehicles so long as the vehicle proved “unstable”.
The tanks are Puma of the “VJTF” version, which already indicates their purpose: 42 Puma VJTF should have been made available to the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in less than three weeks. The VJTF is NATO’s crisis fire brigade, a task force that can be deployed to scenes of conflict within two to seven days – and which has gained importance since the morning of 24 February. Germany supplies most of the soldiers and, at the turn of the year, leads the headquarters for special forces missions for the first time.