The weapons Germany supplied to Ukraine are being criticized by Kyiv as they are not fully meeting Kyiv’s expectations, mainly related to quality!
Ukraine’s military is currently facing a big problem because the weapons supplied by Germany are of low quality. The above comment was made by the American Magazine Military Watch.
In the field of Defense Equipments, germany has made great efforts to compete with Russia and the United States to gain a good part in the international arms trade market.
However, the quality of weapons, other associated equipments, of German origin has been questioned by soldiers of some countries, especially after some German weapon systems delivered poor performance in the war zone.
At the end of the month of June this year, Berlin delivered the Pzh2000 self-propelled howitzers to Kyiv. However, the Ukrainian Forces were almost immediately in trouble, as they quickly deteriorated.
The Pzh2000 self-propelled artillery systems, widely advertised by the international media as the most powerful and advanced in the world, are showing significant signs of “wear and tear” after just one month of operation in the battlefield.
According to Kyiv, the Ukrainian Army has informed Berlin that seven Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery guns currently in use with the Ukrainian Forces are showing error messages after intense shelling of Russian positions, indicating that these howitzers need repairs.
This ultimately leads to logistical and technical problems, making the Ukrainian Armed Forces more dependent on the artillery systems delivered by other countries, such as the American M-777 and French CAESAR, the article added.
To avoid further problems, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to abandon the use of German-supplied Self-propelled artillery guns. Instead, the country’s military decided to rely on Soviet-era systems, as well as some American weapons, the analysts wrote.
Another problem with the Pzh2000 was also discovered by the Ukrainian Forces, which turned out to be the layout of the loading bay and the firing software being incompatible with the ammunition of the other NATO member countries. Therefore, the Ukrainian Army experienced a shortage of ammunition for use on the Self-propelled Artillery guns.
A similar situation occurred with the Gepard anti-aircraft guns, the weapon also suffered from the problem of incompatibility with ammunition.
Notably, a few other types of German heavy weapons were also criticised in the past for not performing well in the battle. For example, the German Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank used by turkey in Iraq and Syria proved to be ineffective.
Turkey had procured 354 Leopard 2A4 tanks from Germany in the early 2000s when the political relations between the two countries were good, with both being NATO members. In 2016, the Turkish Armed Forces launched operation ‘Euphrates Shield’ to clear the northern Syrian territory of the ISIS presence. The cross-border military operation was carried along with Syrian rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army.
Approximately 11 tanks were badly damaged in this operation by the attacks in the form of barrages of Daesh and Kurdish missiles.
Now coming back to the previous topic related to the malfunctioning of the Pzh2000 guns, according to the assessment, the failure of the German Weapons on the Ukrainian Battlefield will seriously affect the reputation of the German military-industrial complex.
“The German Defense Industry seems to be looking to capitalize on the Ukraine Conflict. But the characteristics and actual performance of German-made weapons in real combat can become a serious obstacle to their ambitions”.
One recent notable sign, analysts says, is Poland’s decision to not to buy more Leopard 2 battle tanks or invest in German Pzh2000 howitzers. Instead, Warsaw will now buy South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks and K-9 Thunder Self-Propelled tracked artillery guns, considering them to be more combat ready and reliable.