The federal government has granted an export license for Leopard 1 main battle tanks to Ukraine. This was confirmed by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Friday in Berlin, without giving any further details.
So far, the federal government had only announced the delivery of the more modern Leopard 2 tanks from Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine.
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” had previously reported on further deliveries of battle tanks to Ukraine. Accordingly, it is about Leopard 1 tanks from industrial stocks.
problem of obtaining ammunition
Deliveries could be made at any time once the industry has repaired the tanks, the “SZ” reported in its Friday edition, citing information from government circles.
However, there are still problems in obtaining the required 105 millimeter ammunition. Although Brazil still has large stocks of ammunition due to the delivery of around 250 Leopard tanks from Germany, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has so far refused to pass it on, as it did with the ammunition for the Cheetah anti-aircraft tank.
Rheinmetall and the Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) wanted to prepare dozens of Leopard 1 tanks and could deliver them to the fight against Russia if Ukraine were interested in buying them, it said.
The federal government had already decided to make 14 more modern Leopard 2 main battle tanks from Bundeswehr stocks available to Ukraine.
Pistorius wants to bring back Cheetah tanks from Qatar
The shortage of ammunition also affects the German-made Gepard tanks that have been in use in Ukraine for some time. According to “SZ”, the country only had around 30,000 shots for them, which severely restricted the possible uses.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is therefore also in favor of buying back 15 Gepard tanks and ammunition from Qatar. “The cheetahs proved themselves very well in the war in Ukraine.
If we could get more from partners here, that would definitely help the Ukrainians,” he told SZ. So far, the country has already received 37 Cheetah anti-aircraft gun tanks.
In this case, Switzerland has so far refused to pass on cheetah ammunition produced there. In the medium term, starting in July, a new production facility at Rheinmetall in Unterlüß, Lower Saxony, should solve the problem. According to “SZ”, the Bundeswehr will probably order 150,000 shots in two variants twice.
One is therefore particularly suitable for combating air targets because of its fragmentation effect. With another variant you have to hit the target directly, but this can be produced faster. (AFP, dpa)
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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