According to the chancellor’s office, Germany has so far delivered to Ukraine 34 Gepard SPAAGs within around 6,000 rounds of ammunition.
Berlin plans to transfer to Ukraine additional 3 Gepards in the future.
All Gepards sent by the Germany to Ukraine come from German defence industry stocks. The deliveries are financed by the German fund for security capacity building.
Berlin also is working to secure the future supply of 35mm ammunition for the Gepards.
So far, talks with Switzerland have failed, but in February German Ministry of Defence awarded a contract to Rheinmetall for the production and delivery of 35mm ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Under this contract, Rheinmetall will be supplying 150,000 rounds each of Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot – Tracer (APDS-T) and High Explosive Incendiary – Tracer (HEI-T) ammunition. This will enable the effective engagement of a multitude of targets. The first APDS-T rounds will be delivered in the summer of 2023. A shift in production from APDS-T to HEI-T is scheduled to take place in mid-2024.
According to Rheinmetall, the company is currently creating additional medium-calibre ammunition production capacity at its plant in Unterlüß, which is due to go into operation in the summer of 2023. In building this new production line, Rheinmetall is responding to sharply increased global demand.
