BERLIN. German defense minister under suffocating pressure Christine Lambrecht, as Berlin takes command of NATO’s rapid reaction force in the New Year. The fiasco with Puma tanks that failed during the exercise cast a shadow over her tenure, while the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called her job in the ministry miserable. Despite the statements of the Chancellor Olaf Soltz for a “new era” in German defense, the Bundeswehr is in worse shape than the previous year, the authority sheet notes. Lambrecht yesterday gave the defense industry a deadline of several weeks to fix bugs in Puma, warning that if it doesn’t, it will have to look for other systems. “I need reliable systems quickly, not something that can be deployed, maybe in 2025,” she said in an interview.

Over the weekend, it became known that during the exercises of the Bundeswehr to train the new rapid reaction forces, all 18 tanks manufactured by Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann faced a number of serious technical problems. Panic reigned in the leadership of the Bundeswehr. “How could this happen? And what are the political implications of this fiasco?” Questions were on everyone’s lips. Emergency talks between ministry officials and representatives of the defense industry began on Monday morning. However, it remains unclear how quickly the tanks will be ready for combat readiness.

The industry knows the plan has no future unless it proves to the government that it has a future, Lambrecht said yesterday. At the same time, he rejected the opposition’s claims that the stress tests of the machines were carried out too late, given the deadline of January 1, when the country’s participation in NATO forces begins. According to her version, the test was to take place shortly before the New Year to decide whether to deploy the Puma or Marder tanks. “Exercises conducted many months ago would not have helped us move forward.” Social Democratic defense experts blamed Lambrecht’s predecessors in the Christian Democratic Party, Ursula von der Leyen, current President of the Commission (from 2013 to 2019), and Angela Merkel’s chosen one, Annegret Kramp, of the terrible image of the German military. until 2021). “The Ministry of Defense, which has been under conservative leadership for years, has not been able to successfully develop Cougars together with industry,” said Social Democratic MP Wolfgang Helmich. “It is consistent that the Minister of Defense opposes the slogan “we will continue in the same spirit.” The industry needs to identify and address major technical issues as quickly as possible.”