Note on the planned joint venture: However, it is likely to be at least another year or two before the production can begin and all prior steps like signing the MoU, setting up the JV have been taken. No further details have been announced.
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Rheinmetall CEO Papperger announced at yesterday's Annual General Meeting that they plan to establish another joint venture in #Ukraine in the field of air defence.
He also announced that the currently pledged 40 Marder 1A3 IFVs will be delivered to Ukraine starting this month until September.
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Background info: In September 2023, Hamburg's senate agreed on supporting Ukraine with mine and ordnance clearance eqipment. More than 9.5 million euros are being used to procure modern equipment and deliver it to Ukraine. In order to realise this, the legal framework was changed last year.
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Further mine clearance equipment is to be delivered in the course of 2024, including 20 bomb protection suits and 10 manipulators for transporting and destroying IEDs.
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Today, a first GCS-200 remote-controlled demining machine was handed over by Hamburg's Senator of the Interior to the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany. Starting in June, it will be used for mine clearance in Ukraine. Three more GCS-200s will be delivered to Ukraine by August.
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A Ukrainian sniper showed one of the German-delivered MK 556 assault rifles. In total, Germany has delivered 985 of these assault rifles and pledged to deliver another 4,015 in the future. Ukrainian special forces are being trained on these rifles in Germany by the German KSK.
In my latest article, I tried to give you an overview of the developments over the last few months and the current state of repair and maintenance work of German-made weapon systems in #Ukraine and abroad. I also tried not to go into too much detail.
deaidua.org/news/2024/05...
What is the current state of the supply of spare parts and the repair and maintenance of German-made weapon systems in Ukraine? An overview.
deaidua.org
In addition to establishing the prosthesis workshop, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has also supported the associated Unbroken rehabilitation centre. After patients have received prostheses, a team of psychologists, physiotherapists and doctors look after them there.
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Around 1,200 prostheses and orthoses can be produced in the new workshop each year. This will triple the current production capacity in Ukraine.
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During her visit to Ukraine, Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze inaugurated a new prosthesis centre in #Lviv, the construction of which was co-financed by Germany to the tune of €1.8 million.
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There is also now the confirmation of the costs ($30 million) of the contract. SPIEGEL had previously reported on the contract value of €30 million.
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Spoke to Colby (Security columnist for The Insider) about this, and he said it might be possible that the three German-financed M142 HIMARS are in Ukraine within the next 24h if they are already in Poland. A couple of days if they have to fly them from the US to Poland.
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US Secretary of State Blinken has invoked the emergency clause of the AECA to authorize an immediate Foreign Military Sale of 3 M142 HIMARS to Ukraine, which means things are moving fast now!
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Very important, since it was recently confirmed that Ukraine has big ammunition issues regarding the three German-delivered IRIS-T SLM systems.
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According to the German Ministry of Defence, Canada will contribute around €52 million to the German initiative to strengthen Ukraine's air defence in the short term. The funds will be used to buy IRIS-T (SL?) missiles, which will be delivered to Ukraine in the following weeks!
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Yesterday, the German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius announced that Germany will supply #Ukraine with three M142 HIMARS from US stocks. I took the time to write a detailed article for you with background information and possible reasons.
deaidua.org/news/2024/05...
Germany will buy three M142 HIMARS MLRS from US stocks and deliver them to Ukraine. A detailed article on the background of this decision.
deaidua.org
It could therefore be that Germany made the unplanned delivery to compensate for the failure of a Patriot radar in Ukraine and is waiting, so to speak, until Ukraine gets a “new” one to get its own radar back.
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The delivery has not yet been officially confirmed by the German government (which is very unusual), despite the delivery being confirmed via the leaked conference call of high-ranking Bundeswehr soldiers earlier this year.
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The minister did not talk about why the radar is out of action. It could therefore have been caused by shelling, technical failure or a different reason. I would like to point out once again that Germany has already delivered an additional Patriot radar to Ukraine, probably already last year.
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He (Pistorius) also discussed this with Raytheon during his visit to the US. Specifically, the question was whether it would be possible to “generate” an additional radar from spare parts from several radars. This is currently still under review.
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Small 🧵 — Apparently, one of the rare Patriot radars in #Ukraine is no longer working. The German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius spoke at a press conference in Washington about the fact that a Patriot radar has been out of action “for some time” and needs to be replaced.
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More assistance for #Ukraine via the German air defence initiative in sight. According to the German Minister of Defence, there are now offers and commitments for additional missiles for both the Patriot systems and for “the French one” (most likely SAMP/T). No info by whom.
The amount should be interesting here. According to Oryx, one HIMARS has so far been confirmed destroyed in Ukraine and two others damaged (probably undergoing repairs). It is therefore possible that Germany is financing the targeted replacement of Ukrainian capacities here.
This is not a joke. Germany is buying three HIMARS from US stocks and is donating them to #Ukraine. The German Minister of Defence just confirmed this at a press conference in Washington.
It is quite possible that losses of modern battle tanks are replenished with Leopard 1A5s, but this is only a theory of mine.
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Interesting. A soldier of the 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade is posing with a German/Danish/Dutch-delivered Leopard 1A5. The interesting part is that the 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade is known to operate modern Stridsvagn 122 & Leopard 2A6, not comparably old Leopard 1A5.
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During her visit to Ukraine, further preparations will also be made for the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which Germany and Ukraine are jointly organising in Berlin on the 11th and 12th of June.
* KfW = German state-owned investment and development bank
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The funds will be used to repair damaged parts of the electricity grid infrastructure and make the electricity grid more protected, more efficient and therefore less vulnerable to attacks. Another goal is to increase the compatibility with the European electricity grid.
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During a surprise visit to Ukraine, German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze pledged further assistance to #Ukraine. A grant agreement worth €45 million was signed between the KfW* and Ukrenergo.
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Die erste Patriot-Batterie der Schweiz soll frühstens 2026 ausgeliefert werden – in zwei Jahren. Wenn die Schweiz jetzt für die Ukraine auf ihre erste Batterie verzichten würde, dann wird sie trotzdem erst in zwei Jahren geliefert.
Today, financed by the German government, 20 off-road vehicles worth around €550,000 were handed over to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Units of the Ukrainian National Police. These are to be used in the regions on the front line. More vehicles are to be handed over in Q3 and Q4.
Was gefragt wurde ist unbekannt und selbst wenn, da die Schweiz ihre erste Patriot-Batterie erst in einigen Jahren in Dienst nehmen würde, macht das auch kaum einen Unterschied.
Dann würde die Ukraine frühestens in zwei Jahren die erste Schweizer Patriot-Batterie bekommen. Nicht sehr »immediate action«.
He also admits that the Czech initiative is not progressing as quickly as he would have wished. This has to do with Russian “countermeasures”, as they have basically revealed their cards with opening the initiative to the public.
Full interview: www.tagesschau.de/ausland/euro...
Tschechiens Präsident Pavel überraschte mit seiner Munitionsinitiative die Unterstützer der Ukraine. Im ARD-Interview erklärt er, wann welche auf dem Weltmarkt beschaffte Munition eintreffen soll - un...
www.tagesschau.deIt was already known that the first 180,000 shells had been contracted. Pavel said in the interview that these shells would be delivered in June. Contracts for a further five- to six-figure number of shells have already been signed.
Small 🧵 — Czech President Petr Pavel gave an interview to the German ARD. One of the topics was the Czech ammunition initiative to support #Ukraine. I will summarise two important points here 🔽.
Tschechiens Präsident Pavel überraschte mit seiner Munitionsinitiative die Unterstützer der Ukraine. Im ARD-Interview erklärt er, wann welche auf dem Weltmarkt beschaffte Munition eintreffen soll - un...
www.tagesschau.deIch fand es interessant, dass man sich in erster Linie überhaupt an die Schweiz gewandt hat? Ich meine, dass die Schweiz aus Neutralitätsgründen keine Kriegsmaterialien an die Ukraine exportiert ist bekannt und genauso wenig finanzieren sie die auch nicht?!
A German-delivered Marder 1A3 IFV in service with the 25th Airborne Brigade. On Monday, the German government made the delivery of 10 additional Marder 1A3 to Ukraine public, bringing the total number of supplied Marder 1A3 IFVs to 100. Another 40 Marder 1A3 are still pledged.
Only on Monday did the German government publicise the delivery of an unknown number of IRIS-T SL missiles to Ukraine to supply the systems already delivered. Another IRIS-T SLM system was also to be delivered to Ukraine at the end of April (delivery not yet confirmed).
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The requirements naturally grow with every system supplied to Ukraine, and it makes not a lot of sense to supply plenty of new systems to Ukraine when you can't even maintain the existing systems.
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To clarify: According to Diehl Defence, they produce up to 500 missiles per year (it is unclear whether only IRIS-T SL or also IRIS-T). Of course, not only do missiles have to be produced for new systems, but existing batteries in Ukraine also have to be regularly equipped with new missiles.
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During a visit to an IRIS-T SLM launcher, they noticed that it was equipped with only one missile instead of the max capacity of eight. According to the Ukrainian soldiers, the system delivered by Germany is extremely efficient, but they can hardly use it anymore because they lack the missiles.
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Members of the Bundestag (members of the Budget Committee) Andreas Schwarz, Sebastian Schäfer and Karsten Klein were in Ukraine (not for the first time) and shared their impressions with SPIEGEL.
www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...
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Drei deutsche Ampelpolitiker sehen in der Ukraine mit eigenen Augen, was der Mangel an Waffennachschub bedeutet, wie erdrückend die russische Übermacht ist. Welche Konsequenzen ziehen sie daraus?
www.spiegel.de
🧵 - My assumption that a lack of missiles (IRIS-T SL) is the limiting factor in the deliveries of IRIS-T SLM air defence systems to #Ukraine seems to be confirmed.
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Details were not provided and yes, in theory at least, they could be used against targets on Russian soil.
For example, Vulcano 155 BER with ~50 km range (as you can see in the image) and Vulcano 155 GPS/SAL with ~70 km range were delivered. A total of 255 shells were delivered.
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The most modern 155mm artillery ammunition that Ukraine has or had in use to date also came to Ukraine via German aid, but not from Rheinmetall, but from Diehl Defence/Leonardo. These were Vulcano ammunition in various versions.
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