After two months of hesitation, Germany’s federal government has approved the delivery of 18 RCH-155 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, Welt reports.
Kyiv asked for 18 copies of the RCH-155 weapon system worth €216 mn, which Kyiv wants to order from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) armaments group, a letter from the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov to his German colleague Christine Lambrecht states.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk welcomed the move and hoped that the federal government “also makes further commitments” as part of an existing KMW offer of a total of 100 self-propelled howitzers.
The RCH-155 would be ready for delivery after 30 months at the earliest. According to Ukrainian information, KMW only wanted to start production when there was a clear signal from the federal government that the weapons could be exported to Ukraine.
In the RCH-155, the gun of a Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) is mounted on the base of the eight-wheeled military vehicle Boxer. The ammunition also corresponds to that of the PzH 2000. Germany has already delivered ten examples of this self-propelled howitzer to the Ukraine.
