Earlier this year, the German government approved a sale of arms to Qatar with an estimated cost of €100 million, mostly consisting of 12 RCH 155 self-propelled artillery systems. In exchange, Qatar handed Germany half of its fleet of 24 Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) tracked guns, which will be forwarded to Ukraine under the "ring exchange" program after maintenance. According to plan, the first six units should be delivered to Ukraine by the end of 2024, with the other six following in the second half of 2025, Bild reports.
In their article, the journalists criticize Berlin's policy regarding the sale of weapons to the Middle East, noting that this deal disregards Israel's months-long waiting for permits to buy German ammunition for the war against Hamas. Meanwhile, the government trades arms with one of "Hamas's most important supporters."
Read more: Twelve PzH 2000 Germany Promised to Ukraine in 2024 Delayed
This example clearly illustrates the discord that occasionally happens when the governments of certain countries prefer not to disclose the source of supplies of equipment and weapons to their protege; and instead, the press of these countries is quick to publish the details of these deals as soon as possible.
Moreover, if Germany had to buy weapons of its own production from a Middle Eastern country to keep the military aid flowing into Ukraine, it means the stocks of these weapons in Europe itself are running low or at least nearing the state of complete exhaustion.
This calls for a logical question, where else PzH 2000 howitzers could be found, theoretically available for a "ring exchange" or other provision agreements in behalf of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The following breakdown takes into account that such countries as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and now Qatar, too, have already sent what they could in terms of PzH 2000s. Also, despite Hungary operating artillery of this type as well, the political situation in the government is not in favor of such transactions.
So, the relevant Panzerhaubitze 2000 balance would look like this:
- Lithuania has 18 units;
- Croatia has 13 units;
- Greece has 24 units;
- Qatar still has the remaining 12 units;
- the Netherlands also should have up to 27 units left in long-term storage.
Worth emphasizing, the estimate above is purely theoretical. After all, each weapons transfer to Ukraine from its Western partners is a tangle of complex decisions and compromises, which sometimes take months to unravel, and often include complex bilateral agreements to replace a certain type of equipment with a proper counterpart.
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