Recently, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported in its DSEI 2025 summary that during the defense exhibition they discussed implementation of joint agreements on deliveries, technical support and joint production of the Gepard system for the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with KNDS Deutschland's CEO Ralf Ketzel.
This statement is interesting because their production was completed back in the mid-1980s, about 40 years ago. Since then, not only have the relevant production capacities disappeared, but the technologies were likely lost as well.
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So if production is to be restored, it will not be possible to simply take the drawings and start manufacturing. The system will have to be redesigned from scratch and all the electronics replaced with new ones.
In addition, the original Gepard gun was produced on the Leopard 1 chassis, and production of those chassis no longer exists; the stocks that could be converted for the Armed Forces are not particularly large. Therefore, it will likely be necessary to mount the Gepard turret on another chassis, for example on the Leopard 2, or on a wheeled platform altogether.
The latter option, by the way, will probably turn out to be cheaper and more scalable, which is extremely important in current conditions when the most important parameters are cost and quantity. Such an approach makes the project more realistic in terms of quickly building up a fleet.
Further problems will arise with the Gepard system's radar, since their production no longer exists either. Either it will be necessary to restore its production, or, more likely, to replace it with other, more modern equivalents that have better characteristics and can be obtained much faster. And here it is mentioned that Ukrainian Gepard guns will be modernized by Ukrainian company, which will improve the radar and the tracking system.
For this KNDS will provide all relevant documentation, and the Ukrainian side, in turn, will transfer its developments. Quite possibly, this could also serve as a foundation for restoring production. It is also worth recalling that Germany has already resumed production of ammunition for the Gepard system, which is also important when talking about restoring production of such systems. Taking into account all the obstacles mentioned above on the path to resuming the Gepard production, one can conclude that if manufacturing is indeed restored, the result will be effectively a new system that will have little in common with the original Gepard system technically, and probably externally too.
But restoring production is a rather complex and long process. So the next question arises: wouldn't it be easier to "not bother" and order, for example, the latest Skyranger systems? Especially since their mass production is already being rolled out, and they will even be better than the Gepard gun. Rheinmetall even declares that it has ramped up to produce 200 Skyranger units a year. In addition, a contract for these vehicles, worth hundreds of millions, has already been promised. So it remains unclear why aim to obtain an even larger "zoo" of systems if one can take the new Skyranger system as a baseline.
One can try to explain this by saying that the operational costs of the Gepard gun will be lower. For perspective: the cost of one shell for this system is around $300, and to eliminate one Shahed drone it usually takes about 20-30 rounds, which is approximately $6,000-$9,000. In the case of the Skyranger system, the number of rounds needed to shoot down a target will be significantly smaller. Here one can cite a similar system, Skynex, which is also in Ukraine and requires about 10 rounds to defeat a target. But the cost of each round is likely much higher.
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