Germany supplied Ukraine with vehicles unsuitable for combat at inflated prices, BILD reported on February 18.
According to the results of an investigation by a German publication, at the end of May last year the German government announced the supply to Ukraine of 66 APC armored personnel carriers, manufactured by the German consortium FFG.
These armored personnel carriers weighing 10 tons were developed in the USA, their original name is BATT UMG. They are produced in different countries around the world under a US license. Deliveries began in October; In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received 48 vehicles.
According to BILD, they turned out to be completely unsuitable for the front in Ukraine and, in general, for use in combat conditions. They have thin plates and no mines or fragmentation armor against artillery, rocket and mortar fire. The supplied armored vehicles only protect against small arms and are suitable for rear operations.
As BILD open data analysis expert Julian Röpke discovered, the German Ministry of Defense initially chose between light vehicles from FFG and heavy Fuchs from Rheinmetall. The first to choose “as the most economical and quickly available solution”.
The German Defense Ministry refers to kyiv and states that “Ukraine did not need increased mine protection at that time”.
An anonymous Ukrainian official told BILD: “Of course, we would like vehicles with mine protection, but the German side did not offer them.”.
The BILD investigation also revealed that the German company FFG awarded the order for the 66 vehicles to the American contractor The Armored Group (TAG). As a result, all armored personnel carriers were assembled at the TAG plant in the United Arab Emirates. From there, the armored vehicles were delivered to Ukraine with only one stop in Germany. Not a single armored personnel carrier was assembled in Germany.
Furthermore, there were no real savings. The prices for the state contract tripled: on the world market, TAG’s APC armored vehicles cost about 200,000 euros, and the German Ministry of Defense paid 600,000 euros for them.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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