BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The Bundeswehr's Puma infantry fighting vehicles that broke down during a firing exercise have almost all been repaired. "The assessment of the vehicles was completed at the end of last week, almost all the damage was trivial," a spokesman for manufacturer Rheinmetall told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Berlin on Monday in response to a query. And, "Of 18 vehicles, 17 are running again." Extensive repairs were needed only on one of the vehicles, which had a cable fire, he said.

A spokesman for the Defense Ministry said a status report on the damage was available, but he did not provide exact details on Monday. He added that a plan was being worked out from this with all those involved as to how the Puma "could be used in the long term, even under combat conditions." He said, "That will certainly take a few more days."

After 18 of 18 deployed armored personnel carriers failed during a firing exercise, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had pulled the emergency brake and had the Puma removed from a German NATO commitment in the VJTF rapid reaction force. The German soldiers reported ready for deployment are now equipped with the older Marder infantry fighting vehicle. It has also put an additional purchase on hold.

Questions as to how serious the technical problems were or whether operating or maintenance errors were also involved remain unanswered. The Puma infantry fighting vehicle was not declared combat-ready until 2021 and is being built jointly by the defense companies Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).

The CDU/CSU in the Bundestag rebuked Lambrecht for what it saw as too slow an investigation into the infantry fighting vehicle's recent failures. "The holder of the command and command authority seems to care more about her own Christmas vacation than finally clearing up and cleaning up," the defense policy spokesman for the Union faction, Florian Hahn (CSU), told Die Welt (Monday). "If one wonders about current deficiencies in the Bundeswehr, one can state: The fish stinks from the head." He said the minister had broken her own promise to create transparency as quickly as possible.

Hahn has asked the ministry for the current state of affairs and the results of an announced comprehensive assessment of the situation - without a response, he says. He doubts that the industry is being blamed unilaterally: "The minister was obviously completely off the mark in the initial diagnosis."

Following the opposition, the Green Party also called for faster clarification and more transparency vis-à-vis the Bundestag. "Having a plan is good. Nevertheless, we would like to know very soon what the problem was - and not have to gather set pieces from the troops and the press," Sara Nanni, chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group in the defense committee, told the "taz" (Tuesday)./cn/DP/ngu