The Special Training Command EUMAM UA announced today on the website of the Bundeswehr that the first Ukrainian soldiers have started their training on the GTK Boxer in Germany.
In fact, on the 7th of May, just over three weeks ago, video footage was shared on their own X account (formerly known as Twitter) showing Ukrainian soldiers being trained on the GTK Boxer.
On the basis of this platform, the German government is currently financing 54 state-of-the-art RCH 155 self-propelled artillery systems and 9 BOXER RCT30s with mobile fire direction centres for Ukraine, which will complete the delivery of the artillery systems. The artillery systems alone will cost the German government €890 million.
The contract for the first 18 RCH 155s was signed towards the end of 2022, with further orders following in 2024, meaning that the Ukrainian army has had to wait more than 2.5 years for the first RCH 155 — the most modern artillery system in the world — to enter combat deployment.
In fact, the deployment to the front now seems to have to be pushed back even further. According to the Special Training Command, the soldiers are currently still in the initial training phase.
In this phase, one learns how to handle the vehicle and the technical understanding. Among other things, slalom driving through rough terrain, reversing manoeuvres with limited visibility and driving on extreme inclines are part of the daily training.
The Ukrainian soldiers will only be trained on the artillery system itself at a later stage. This training will certainly take several more weeks in addition to the time needed for the training that the soldiers are currently taking part in. For comparison: training Ukrainian soldiers on the PzH 2000 takes around seven weeks.
Regardless of whether the training has already been underway for the past three weeks or has only just begun, this means one thing above all. A delivery to Ukraine has not yet taken place and may still be several months away.
This is the second time that the deployment of the RCH 155 in Ukraine has been delayed. In November 2023, Axel Scheibel, Managing Director of KNDS Germany and responsible for development, announced in an interview with SPIEGEL that the first artillery systems would be delivered at the end of 2024.
In November 2024, KNDS Germany CEO Ralf Ketzel then announced in an interview with hartpunkt that the first systems would be delivered to Ukraine in April 2025.
Since the first RCH 155 was ceremonially handed over to the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, in Kassel more than four months ago, on the 13th of January, I had previously assumed that this delivery deadline had been met.
This does not appear to be the case. Ukraine is in urgent need of state-of-the-art and effective equipment to not only keep the Russian troops at bay, but also to push them back.
The RCH 155 is recognised for its exceptionally high level of automation and mobility and is the only artillery system in the world capable of firing its own 155mm shells on the move with deadly precision.
If the Ukrainian soldiers deploy the artillery system accordingly at the front, the RCH 155 will be much more difficult for the Russian troops to combat than most other artillery systems.
According to the German Ministry of Defence, Ukraine is set to receive the first six RCH 155s this year, while deliveries of the remaining 48 systems will extend to at least 2027.
Once the currently publicly known deliveries have been completed, Germany will have equipped three Ukrainian artillery battalions exclusively with RCH 155s.
Considering the current military situation on the front, one can only hope that the problems responsible for the delays will not only be localised but also resolved.
Even if the initial delivery is delayed, it may be possible to make up for lost time and complete the project not only on time, but even earlier than planned.
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