The Bundeswehr will deliver 16 armored bridge-laying tanks of the Biber type to the Ukraine.
This was announced by the Ministry of Defense on Friday.
Six of the tanks, which can be used to cross bodies of water, ravines or ditches up to 20 meters wide in combat using a laying bridge, are to be delivered from autumn this year, and ten more next year.
Markus Wehner
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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According to the ministry, the promised delivery includes transport, repairs and training.
The 22 meter long armored rapid bridge is coupled together from two halves during laying.
The transport and laying vehicle is a chassis of the Leopard 1 tank. The delivery is intended as a supplement for the Panzerhaubitze 2000.
However, several of the seven delivered self-propelled howitzers are already in need of repair, as was announced on Friday.
They went to Ukraine from Germany and the Netherlands just a month ago.
According to information from the Ministry of Defense to the FAZ, the wear and tear is due to the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces are using the howitzers at a very intensive combat speed.
While the Bundeswehr has designed the howitzers for a hundred rounds a day, several hundred rounds are fired a day in the Ukraine, the ministry confirmed in a report by the magazine "Spiegel".
Probably not a quick fix
The ability to quickly fire off shots and then quickly relocate them makes the Panzerhaubitze 2000 a particularly effective weapon in Ukraine when fighting invading Russian positions.
The high level of wear and tear has evidently meant that the spare parts supplied for the howitzers are no longer sufficient.
It is unlikely that the howitzers will be repaired quickly.
According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine must first notify which parts are most urgently needed, and then the defense industry must see how quickly it can deliver.
So that repairs can be carried out more quickly, the federal government is negotiating with the armaments industry whether a repair center can be set up in Poland.