German Defense Ministry Intends to Buy 50 Puma Armored Vehicles

BERLIN (Sputnik) - The German Defense Ministry intends to buy 50 Puma infantry fighting vehicles from the defense industry for its armed forces, even though the model suffered serious breakdowns in the past, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported, citing sources in the ministry.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to buy new Puma vehicles, believing that all issues with the equipment have been resolved, the report said, adding that the ministry intends to sign a contract with the defense industry on the purchase of 50 infantry fighting vehicles worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion) and manufacture of extra 150 vehicles to sell them to NATO allies.

The German ministry expects to allocate money for that purpose from a special fund of 100 billion euros announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2022 with the aim to improve the country's defense capabilities.

Earlier in the month, German defense giants Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann said that they had received an order from the German government on the modernization of over 140 Puma infantry fighting vehicles.

In late December, the Spiegel magazine reported that all 18 Pumas that were intended to be used by the NATO Response Force were not combat ready. In the light of the incident, then defense minister Christine Lambrecht said she had not ruled out that the government might stop buying Puma vehicles.