The German-funded contract for hundreds of armored vehicles for Ukraine was supposed to deliver the first batches in 2023, but as of April, not a single unit had been delivered.
The German publication Bild reported on this.
In June 2023, the German government announced a tranche of military aid to Ukraine, which included a large number of armored vehicles, including unnamed “armored personnel carriers.”
As the publication later reported, it was about German-made MRAP armored vehicles, namely BATT UMG.
“There is a contract between Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) and Ukraine, which is funded by Germany. According to our data, all vehicles will be delivered in 2024,” a spokesman of the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) told reporters.
According to Bild, FFG has been awarded a contract for 400 vehicles worth €315 million, where each vehicle, including spare parts, certification and delivery costs €787,500. Delivery of the equipment was to begin in 2023 and continue over the next few years.
Failure to meet contract deadlines
Bild refers to secret documents obtained by the German Ministry of Defense from September 2023, which refer to plans to supply armored vehicles to Ukraine in batches of 20 units from January to October 2024.
However, to date, no vehicles of this type have been delivered, and the first deliveries are scheduled for 2024.
According to the publication, this year’s deliveries have already been postponed from January to May, and now they are expected to start only in June. The total expected volume of transferred equipment in 2024 was therefore halved from 200 to 100 units.
The reasons for the constant supply disruptions may be poorly established logistics and production processes, as the German company Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) manufactures the vehicles under license, performing only the final assembly from American parts.
The publication says, citing sources in the German Defense Ministry, that the delays were caused by “restrictive export permits from the United States to Germany.”
Also, according to Bild, the already manufactured vehicles cannot be delivered to Ukraine due to the lack of the necessary certification: Germany has pledged to supply “mine-protected vehicles,” but BATT UMG has not been tested.
A ministry insider confirmed to the publication that no successful tests had been conducted to obtain the necessary certificates by mid-April. The mine protection of vehicles promised by FFG has not yet been proven.
This is totally pathetic. While the Germans and US play stupid games, Ukrainians are dying. Someone needs to get their arse into gear and stop sabotaging these vital deliveries.
Well, what can be said about this? It’s been like this for two years. No one sees any hurry to get their thumbs out of their asses.
Sadly, true. Once the first notice came in that there’s problems with getting the necessary permits, this should have been escalated immediately to Scholz, to be solved in communication with Biden. It’s totally hopeless to try to argue with Pentagon bureaucrats, nobody there will got out on a weak limp to help Germany. Only clear orders from the top can cut through such red tape. Ask any manager of a German defence industry company who’s been there, it’s always the same. I guess the rather regional enterprise FFG had not made this experience yet, but the German department of defence should have known better and alerted them of the huge flaw in their plan. Oh, and the US company which promised delivery, despite of certainly knowing the restrictions, too. 😠
The West is clearly enjoying its bureaucratic circus show, despite the urgency for its own safety and the Ukrainian blood it’s costing.
I wouldn’t go so far as to generally claim that bureaucrats enjoy their boring work of preventing progress, but there sure are at least some real sadists among them, ok. 👿
“restrictive export permits from the United States to Germany.”
That’s most probably true, I know such stories directly from a late friend who was involved in such negotiations about restricted technology and knowhow. It always, without any exceptions, turned out to be a one way street, from Germany to the US, with nothing in return. And this, despite Nato considerations making higher coordination of standards highly important. So, the main blame for this has to go to the Pentagon (where my friend had been, too, to no avail).
However, that’s nothing new at all, those experiences are from the 80s and 90s and there had been no improvements since then, if news reports are to be believed, rather the contrary. And the German ministry of defence must know that. So, who’s the idiot there who disregard that and came up with the naive idea to include US components (perhaps because German ones couldn’t be delivered on short notice)? How often do German bureaucrats fall into the same trap to finally learn something?
Europe can’t rely on the US for military needs (with the one exception of the UK), that should be common knowledge and consequences need to be drawn from that. Only political agreements at the top level, like between Biden and Scholz, can overcome the red tape! 😠