Also in the new year, the Federal Republic of Germany is actively and steadily supporting Ukraine with deliveries of weapons systems and other military equipment against the Russian aggression.
On the 17th of January, the German government announced the deliveries of the past two weeks for the second time this year. This time, the deliveries that were carried out and announced focussed heavily on vehicles.
The German government not only supplied Ukraine with sixteen Mercedes-Benz Zetros tank trucks for water or fuel, five border protection vehicles and three regular vehicles, but also with eight FFG APCs.
These are BATT UMGs, which are manufactured under licence by the German company FFG, based in Flensburg, and marketed under the name FFG Armoured Personnel Carrier.
The following is a complete list of the deliveries made over the last two weeks.
- 25 RQ-35 Heidrun UAVs
- 8 FFG APCs
- 16 Mercedes-Benz Zetros tank trucks for water or fuel
- 5 border protection vehicles
- 3 regular vehicles
- ammunition for the Leopard 1A5 MBTs
- material for explosive ordnance disposal
- 50 satellite communication terminals
- 1,840 combat helmets M92
- 500 LED lights
The satellite communication terminals are most likely Satcube terminals. The manufacturer announced last year that the German government would finance hundreds of these terminals for Ukraine at a cost of several million euros.
Shortly afterwards, the first terminals appeared on the official list of German military assistance to Ukraine, although the delivery of these specific terminals was never confirmed by the Ministry of Defence.
The 500 LED lights are likely to be faLKE light systems. In October last year, it became known that the German government was supplying a total of 2,000 of these light systems to Ukraine. I will be writing a detailed article on them in the near future.
In addition to various military goods delivered, the German government also added some new military assistance that is currently in preparation and will only be delivered in the future.
- 124 RQ-35 Heidrun UAVs
- 15 Gepard SPAAGs
- 20 Marder 1A3 IFVs
- 40 Mercedes-Benz Zetros tank trucks for water or fuel
- 20 Mercedes-Benz Zetros refrigerator trucks
- 2,500 combat helmets M92
- 1,500 LED lights
The 15 Gepard SPAAGs and the 20 Marder 1A3 IFVs should be of particular interest here.
In my opinion, the 15 Gepard SPAAGs are probably the German share of the Cheetah SPAAGs bought back from Jordan. At the time this article was published, the German Ministry of Defence had not yet confirmed this to me.
Back in June 2023, Major General Christian Freuding (Head of the Planning and Command Staff & Head of the Situation Centre Ukraine / German MoD) announced in an interview with Welt am Sonntag that Germany would supply Ukraine with 30 Gepard SPAAGs in cooperation with the USA.
This was only a short time after the USA announced that it had bought back an undisclosed number of Cheetah SPAAGs from Jordan. These differ from the Gepard SPAAG in appearance, mainly due to the different radar.
Meanwhile, the 20 Marder 1A3 IFVs are likely to be the last to be delivered via the industry. Rheinmetall announced months ago that it still had around 20 in stock that could be delivered to Ukraine. These have now apparently been contracted.
Further deliveries via the industry are therefore more or less ruled out and would therefore have to be carried out by the Bundeswehr in future.
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