Germany Lacked Will and Money to Implement Armata Project – German Media

Russia was first to implement the next generation Armata project. Though the idea of such a tank was first developed in Germany, the latter lacked the funding and political will to put it into practice, die Welt wrote.

The basic concept of the Russian Armata tank was developed 30 years ago in Western countries and even tested in Germany. However, Germany lacked the political will and financial resources to implement the project, the German newspaper reported.

The tank concept was once considered a potential replacement for the current Germany’s Leopard 2. Industry experts point out that a new battle tank could have been built a long time ago.

However, the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought major German military projects to a standstill. After the end of the Cold War, the ‘threat from the East’ disappeared and Germany did not see any urgent necessity to continue the arms race.

Now, Russia managed to produce the newest battle tanks based on a German concept. For Germany itself the production of similar Leopard-2 successors could take more than 15 years, experts claim.

"Armata is a wake-up call from the sleep into which we had fallen in early nineties," an industry expert said under condition of anonymity.

According to him, the new Armata T-14 has obvious advantages, even compared to modern variants of the Leopard 2.