The Joint Statement by U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the two countries in a coordinated effort commit to supplying infantry fighting vehicles – M2 Bradley from the United States and Marder from Germany. The decision has been considered since at least April 2022 when Ukraine first sent a request for Marder vehicles to the German government.
"The United States intends to supply Ukraine with Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and Germany intends to provide Ukraine with Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Both countries plan to train Ukrainian forces on the respective systems," reads the statement published by the White House on January 5.
Read more: Bradley for Ukraine: Advantages of This Type of the IFV For the Armed Forces of Ukraine
In addition to this commitment, "Germany will join the United States in supplying an additional Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine" after the U.S. approved the supply of this system earlier in late December. The transfer of the Bradley IFVs has been considered from around that time, too.
On the other hand, the dispute around Marder vehicles has a rather long story which Defense Express covered in a series of articles previously. Instead of logistical, maintenance or personnel training issues, it became an argument over a political decision that has been long withheld by the Scholz administration. It only became more apparent since Rheinmetall concern started to openly speak about the Marder vehicles, modernized and ready to be sold, while Bundestag repeatedly voiced out dissatisfaction over Scholz's delaying to issue the decision.
In this context, we should recall that the Chancellor Scholz was saying that Germany didn't want to "stand out" the line of Ukraine's Western allies and be the first one to approve a decision on supplying Leopard 2 tanks. The decision on providing MARS II rocket launchers was also in a way "forced" from Germany after a joint statement of the USA, Great Britain and Germany in June 2022.
But it looks like hints from the United States and pressure put by France's decision to supply its AMX-10RC light tanks have coaxed the German officials into action so that the Сhair of Bundestag called for more decisiveness on that matter.
Now that the political decision is made, all it takes to establish the terms of delivery. In the case of MARS II, it took almost two months to send them after the initial announcement because it turned out that these systems lacked crucial software. Earlier there was information that 16 Marders were all modernized, operational and ready for the fight while another 70 was being prepared for a potential customer, Rheinmetall said hinting toward Ukraine.
As for the American Bradley, there is no need to worry about quantities because there are quite enough vehicles to meet Ukraine's needs. Although the terms of delivery from across the ocean may be protracted in time, it is still not as much time as Ukraine had to wait for the decision.
Read more: Ukraine Called on US and Germany to Provide Abrams and Leopard 2: How Realistic It Is
