CNN: German arms maker says Gepard anti-aircraft to arrive in Ukraine by July

Germany’s largest arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said the first batch of ammunition for Gepard anti-aircraft systems would arrive in Ukraine by July, CEO Armin Papperger said on Feb. 20, CNN reported.

Earlier this month, Germany signed contracts with Rheinmetall to renew the manufacture of ammunition for Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, which it began supplying to Ukraine last summer.

Papperger told journalists after a visit with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to a weapons manufacturing site in Unterluess, in western Germany, that his company had “doubled capacities, in some sectors even tripled them."

“In weapons production, the warehouse is full, we are running at full steam here, and we can still increase capacity with one shift," if contracts were made, the CEO said.

Papperger also said that twenty Marder fighting vehicles would be ready to deliver to Ukraine by the end of March.

For his part, Defense Minister Pistorius said that the German government was delivering what Germany had and would deliver what could be produced in the next months but that the production of modern battle tanks can take "about two to two and a half years" from the time it is ordered.

Pistorius also on Feb. 20 visited Ukrainian servicepeople in Munster, Germany currently learning to operate Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.

According to the German Federal Government, by mid-February, Berlin had already supplied 32 Gepard guns to Ukraine, including about 6,000 rounds of ammunition.

Gepard guns have been an effective defense against Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones Russia has used to attack Ukraine's infrastructure, German Embassy in Ukraine said last November.

One year later: How Russia came to fail in Ukraine, battle after battle

The Kyiv Independent