German defense company Rheinmetall announced on Monday that the German government has commissioned to supply 40 more Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine.Â
According to a press release from Rheinmetall, placed in August 2023, the order is worth a high double-digit million-euro amount.
As noted by the company, Rheinmetall is pressing ahead with work to overhaul these older vehicles and ensure that the latest lot of Marder IFVs can be delivered as per contract starting in 2023.
This order brings the total number of Marder vehicles to be supplied by Rheinmetall to Ukraine to eighty. On 21 March 2023 the company already shipped the first twenty infantry fighting vehicles ordered by the German government for Ukraine. In addition, another twenty Rheinmetall IFVs were ordered in June 2023. These are currently being overhauled and delivered.
The vehicles being made available are overhauled Marder 1A3 systems formerly owned by the Bundeswehr. As early as spring 2022, Rheinmetall began restoring the infantry fighting vehicles to a state of immediate combat readiness at its own expense.
Work is already underway at Rheinmetall’s plants in Kassel and Unterlüß. The Group can deliver up to ten infantry fighting vehicles a month.
Developed for the Bundeswehr and still in service with the German Army, the Marder infantry fighting vehicle numbers among the most reliable weapons systems of its kind anywhere. Steadily modernized, the vehicle has undergone repeated combat upgrades in the course of its career.