Germany will send Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine. The announcement was made by German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht at the Ramstein military base in Germany during a meeting on the war in Ukraine with her European Union counterparts, Ukrainian Defense Minister Resnikov and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
This is a historic turning point in German armaments policy. After providing 100 billion euros to upgrade the Bundeswehr, the federal government wants to respond to criticism of the inaction in military support for Ukraine by sending out Cheetah tanks. Although they are no longer used by the Bundeswehr, the company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) had already declared in February that it had around 50 units in reserve, which could be delivered to the Ukraine after a short repair. What exactly is the cheetah and why can it be useful to Ukraine in the war against Russia?
what is the cheetah
The Gepard is a German anti-aircraft tank. It’s not a real tank. The full name Anti-Aircraft Gun Tank Gepard or “tank with anti-aircraft guns” better explains its characteristics: it is a tank on which a turret with anti-aircraft guns was mounted.
Developed in the 1960s and deployed in the 1970s, the Gepard consists of the ‘body’ of the German Leopard tank (manufactured by Porsche in the 1960s) on which a turret armed with 2 Oerlikon 35mm guns is mounted was. In addition, the tower has two radars: one on the roof for search and one in the front to detect and track the moving target. It is 7 meters long, weighs around 50 tons and can reach a speed of 65 km/h.
The weapon has been sold to Romania in the past and also to Brazil and Qatar for use during the Olympic Games and the World Cup respectively. In the past, Italy was also interested in the cheetah, but did not buy it because it considered the investment too expensive.
How does it work
The cheetah tower alone weighs 5 tons and houses two men. In its turret, the Cheetah has two 35mm anti-aircraft guns capable of firing 1,100 rounds per minute. Each 35mm gun has 320 rounds of ready-to-fire anti-aircraft ammunition and 20 rounds of anti-ground ammunition with a continuous firing capacity of 37 seconds before running out of ammo. The cheetah is able to hit a target at a distance of 3.5 kilometers, even while driving.
The cheetah has two radars, one for searching and one for aiming. The radar devices offer continuous 360-degree scanning and a range of 15 kilometers. First, the cheetah locks onto the target with the research radar, then passes it to the targeting device, and finally, thanks to the onboard computer’s automatic targeting system, is able to open fire. Thanks to the night vision goggles, the cheetah can also operate at night.
Because it can be useful for Ukraine
The cheetah can be very useful to Ukraine to defend against the invasion of Russia. There are at least two reasons. First, Ukraine would also bolster its air defenses at night with an effective weapon tuned to Cold War needs, that is, aircraft that Russia might still be able to use.
Additionally, the Cheetah could also be used in urban warfare contexts, situations where these types of tanks are effective. The war in Ukraine has already been moving in this direction, with clashes increasingly concentrated in key cities. In this sense, the Germans changed the purpose of a weapon during WWII, adopting an anti-aircraft gun, the 88mm Flak, as an anti-tank gun, wreaking havoc on Allied tanks.