German defence minister says Puma tanks must be repaired quickly

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht on Tuesday reiterated her call to speed up the repair of Germany's faulty Puma tanks, which are being used for the defence alliance NATO missions.
"The industry has a responsibility to repair these systems now that they are not operational," she said in Lest, Slovakia, where German soldiers are deployed to protect NATO's eastern flank. "This is a task that must also be fulfilled very, very quickly."
She ultimately also wants to decide on the underlying question of whether the Pumas should continue to be used.
But she said she expects the defence industry to continue using the Pumas.
"And if that doesn't work, then we have to make a decision, if necessary, that we will no longer use this system.
The revelations of problems with the Puma's is yet another black eye for Germany's military, which has been revealed to be short of many key weapons systems in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Lambrecht did not want to comment in detail on a separate report, according to which only about a third of the German army's 105 self-propelled howitzer 2000 tanks are currently operational.
"The deployment in Ukraine has made it clear what outstanding capabilities are associated with them. And that is why it is important that it is operational, both in Ukraine, but that we also have operationally ready systems available," Lambrecht said.
She declined to discuss the figures on the tanks' operational readiness publicly.
Lambrecht said: "This has to do with the security of the Federal Republic of Germany."