The German Bundestag’s budget committee recently cleared the way today for the procurement of 405 new Puma infantry fighting vehicles for the Bundeswehr.
That could mean a combined total of about $4.4 billion in gross sales for Munich-based Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG (KMG) and Rheinmetall AG of Duesseldorf, the companies said in a statement.
KMG and Rheinmetall each hold a 50 percent stake in the company tasked with the project, PSM GmbH of Kassel. Both hailed the decision as a crucial step in reequipping the German army for the future as well as being vitally important to the German defence industry and a whole host of medium-sized subcontractors.
With its unique balance of tactical and strategic mobility, survivability and lethality, Puma gives the Bundeswehr a state-of-the-art infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) systematically tailored to the current and future operational requirements of the German army both at home and abroad, the companies said.
The Bundestag set the project in motion in September 2002 when it awarded a development contract for the new IFV, followed in 2004 by an approximately $514 million procurement order for five pre-series vehicles and related services. These vehicles are currently undergoing intensive trials. The first serially produced Puma are scheduled to enter service in 2010.
More than thirty years after Germany first fielded the Marder IFV, the Puma is poised to significantly expand the Bundeswehr’s capabilities spectrum, providing it with an entirely new category of tactical vehicle. In any international comparison, the Puma clearly represents the cutting edge in contemporary armored vehicle technology.
Well-protected yet light enough to airlift, the PUMA is modular and expandable, making it useful in international conflict management. The vehicle provides a high level of crew protection from typical conflict zone threats such as landmines, rocket propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices.
The Puma features two different levels of protection. In the basic configuration it can be airlifted in the future Airbus A 400 M transport aircraft, and thus swiftly redeployed from one area of operation to another despite offering a high degree of crew protection. The vehicle can be quickly reconfigured for higher intensity combat by adding separately transported modular armor elements, which provide optimum protection from landmines, shaped charges and medium-caliber weapons fire. Additionally, special roof armor elements protect the crew from bomblets.
Other features include the newly developed 800 kW high-power density engine, running gear decoupled from the vehicle hull, an unmanned turret and programmable ammunition.