Budget committee of German parliament rejected purchase of up to 90 MAUS mobile EW systems for Bundeswehr for 600 million euros due to irrelevance. And although such a decision may seem strange in the drone era, actually Ukraine's experience precisely pushed toward this decision.
As Defence Network writes, we're talking about replacing old HUMMEL with similar means from Rohde & Schwarz company, which specializes in solutions in this direction and was considered by Germany's defense department the only one capable of implementing the project on time. Initially 40 serial and 2 prototype systems were planned for 596 million euros.
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However, parliamentarians stated that the project presented to them doesn't correspond to modern battlefield realities and Ukraine's received experience. So, weak protection of new vehicle and lack of trust in Rohde & Schwarz are noted, whose products recently supposedly arrived of poor quality.
Overall, Bundestag budget committee determined that a larger and well-armored platform is needed with greater range. Moreover, the defense ministry won't be able to adjust the proposal, but will have to start the procurement process from scratch under updated requirements.
Defense Express notes exact MAUS configuration is not reported; one can try to estimate it by analogy to HUMMEL. The latter was created based on Fuchs APC on which equipment for suppressing various enemy signals was installed.
Most likely MAUS was to be on Finnish Patria 6x6, which is being purchased within CAVS, or Piranha V on basis of which Luchs 2 reconnaissance vehicle is being created. Both variants have small basic armor, so the protection claim can be understood.
Also appeared criticism overall of such EW vehicle, which will be vulnerable to enemy drone strikes if operating near front line. There's sense in this; at the same time, similar platform makes sense for covering rear objects and filling role of larger EW means, which has greater range. Perhaps German parliamentarians asked to adjust for the latter.
And interesting is that before us is the first recent refusal by Bundestag budget committee on defense procurement, which is currently happening on huge scales. Parliamentarians argue this by the fact that defense ministry still must use its funds efficiently, so not every its project should automatically be pushed through further.
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