The PUMA Tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle and its Possible Appearance in the Inventory of the HDF

Abstract

The PUMA Infantry Fighting Vehicle is the ultimate, most modern tracked IFV among the IFV inventory of Bundeswehr and it was designed to fulfil all requirements that an IFV should provide in our century. How the German fighting vehicle development has reached this status from MARDER 2 APC to PUMA IFV? What have been the main phases, obstacles and successes of this development? What are the main technical descriptions and technical solutions of PUMA IFV? Could this be the vehicle to fulfil all the given operational and technical requirements posed by the Hungarian Defence Forces, to replace the BMP-1 IFVs of Soviet origin, withdrawn almost 15 years ago? I hope that reading this article you will agree with me in that this IFV with its current configuration is not fully capable to fulfil the previously mentioned post.