German army struggles with NATO obligations—media

(RT) ⸻ The Bundeswehr is short of battle-ready tanks to man NATO's rapid deployment force, German media report. The Bundeswehr Tank Battalion 393 is the only one in the German Army equipped with the state-of-the-art Leopard 2A7V main battle tank, but not enough of them are combat-ready to meet the VJTF requirements. In January, the unit had only 17 tanks ready for action. The German military has extended the period for mandatory tank maintenance from 12 to 24 months in order to increase the number of combat-ready panzers in the 393rd Battalion. Estimates by the Bundeswehr show that the battalion will not be ready for the VJTF mission this year, and the unit would have to "borrow" tanks from another battalion based in Bavaria. The issue was blamed on a maintenance plant owned by the German defense industry giant KMW. Berlin still maintains that it is ready to fulfill its NATO obligations, but German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius admitted a "backlog of maintenance and repairs" during his visit to Lithuania this week. The news comes as Germany prepares to send 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev as part of another Western military aid package.