The federal government was repeatedly criticized for its timid arms deliveries. Now it has apparently approved the sale of 100 modern self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine.
This is reported by the “Spiegel”. As early as July 13, the responsible Federal Ministry of Economics is said to have granted the German armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) a manufacturing license for the “Panzerhaubitze2000” type systems.
As early as April, Ukraine is said to have asked the armaments manufacturer whether the howitzers could be purchased directly from the manufacturer. As a result, KMW submitted a corresponding offer on April 11 and received approval for it two days later.
The budget for the 100 self-propelled howitzers is estimated at 1.7 billion euros. This volume would exceed the previous arms deliveries worth around 600 million euros many times over.
At KMW, production of the weapon systems is to begin immediately. It is still unclear when the first howitzers will go to Ukraine. The production of all howitzers is likely to last for several years.