USA delivers Gepard anti-aircraft tanks from Jordan to Ukraine
Gerhard Heiming
As part of the military aid announced by US President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ukraine will receive up to 60 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks. In May, the Army Contracting Command commissioned the company Global Military Products to purchase the tanks from Jordan for 118 million US dollars (the equivalent of around 110 million euros) and to deliver them in operational condition by May 2024.
Jordan acquired the cheetahs from the Netherlands in 2016. The Netherlands acquired 100 cheetahs at the end of the 1970s and, in 2016, after a structural reform of the army, sold 60 of them to Jordan along with a logistics package. After repairs in the USA, these are now to be delivered to Ukraine in the middle of next year.
There you will meet the 50 Gepard tanks that Germany handed over to the Ukrainian armed forces in the past 16 months. Germany has also ensured the supply of ammunition through a contract with Rheinmetall.
In the war in Ukraine, the Cheetah proved to be an effective weapon in the fight against countless small and large drones. The turret with its two 35 mm high-cadence cannons is designed for close and close range protection and is still able to cope with modern threats more than fifty years after it was put into service.
Gerhard Heiming