BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is assessing its Puma tanks, manufactured by Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), after some of the vehicles were put out of service during a recent military drill, a defence ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
“The failure of the Pumas in the latest exercise is a heavy setback for us,” the spokesperson told a regular news confidence in Berlin.
Germany would still fulfill its NATO readiness commitments by switching to older Marder tanks from Jan. 1, the spokesperson said, describing this as a “fall-back solution”.
The Spiegel magazine reported over the weekend that 18 Puma tanks intended for NATO’s very high readiness joint task force (VJTF) next year were not operational after problems arose during a firing exercise.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht held talks on Monday with industry and officials and said in a statement that she had requested a report on the difficulties by the end of next week.
“NATO can continue to rely on our performance of duty in the VJTF,” she said in a statement.
Rheinmetall shares were trading 5% lower on Monday afternoon following the reported problems with the tanks.
A spokesperson for the company did not comment on the issues.
(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Paul Carrel)
