The Puma IFV can’t match onto trains due to its facet armor, the Bundeswehr has found
Germany’s essential infantry preventing automobile, the Puma, is simply too large to be transported by practice, the outlet Bild reported on Sunday. The IFV has struggled with a wide range of mechanical issues since getting into service in 2015.
“When it comes to firepower, the Puma is actually good. However the transport is greater than suboptimal,” one soldier instructed Bild.
Tracked autos akin to tanks and IFVs are usually transported to the realm of operations by practice, so as to save on gasoline and observe upkeep. As a result of the Pumas are so large, their crews have to unscrew their facet armor earlier than loading it onto the rail vehicles – then repeat the process in reverse on the vacation spot.
An organization of 14 Pumas will be “utterly loaded and stowed in 24 hours,” a Bundeswehr spokesperson instructed Bild. Army consultants estimated that transporting a whole battalion of 44 autos can take “just a few days.” One huge bottleneck is a scarcity of cranes, however the navy stated Puma firms will probably be “geared up with them sooner or later.”
Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann developed the Puma between 1995 and 2009 to exchange the older Marder IVF, which Berlin has since equipped to the Ukrainian navy. The specs referred to as for a automobile that could possibly be airlifted to locations like Africa and Afghanistan.
“The Puma reveals what errors had been made in procurement,” Andreas Schwarz, a Bundestag member from the ruling SPD, instructed Bild. “As a substitute of counting on battle-tested and marketable weapon techniques, a panzer was developed in keeping with particular requests that’s too large for practice transport. That should finish.”
Phrase of the brand new issues with the Puma comes throughout a tough month for the repute of German armor, as photographic and video proof from Ukraine confirmed Leopard 2 tanks supplied to Kiev getting destroyed in battles with the Russian navy.
Berlin paused the acquisition of latest Pumas final December, after a disastrous train that noticed one of many autos catch fireplace and all 18 break down. The automobile is meant to have superior crew safety and wonderful firepower, together with a 30mm autocannon and anti-tank missiles. Nonetheless, German media have mocked it because the ‘Pannenpanzer,’ or “breakdown tank.”
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