Ukraine’s 25th Air Assault Brigade Just Got ‘Tron-Like’ German Fighting Vehicles

The Ukrainian air-assault force’s 25th Brigade just got a lot heavier. Photos that appeared online this week confirm the brigade has re-equipped with German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles.

The 25th is the second Ukrainian air-assault brigade, after the 82nd, to get 31-ton Marders from German stocks. Where the 82nd Brigade has been on the offensive in southern Ukraine, the 25th Brigade is on the defensive in the east around Kupyansk.

Ukrainian air-assault brigades once trained to fly into battle aboard helicopters and transport planes. That’s impractical in the contested air space over the front lines of Russia’s 22-month wider war on Ukraine. So instead, the air-assault brigades have become mechanized brigades … in all but name.

In the 25th Brigade, the Marders apparently are replacing BMD-2 fighting vehicles. It’s a major upgrade. The Soviets designed the 12.5-ton BMD to be air-transportable. That meant keeping it light and small.

But light and small aren’t exactly what the infantry want from their fighting vehicles, which transport them into battle and then support them after they disembark.

The Marder isn’t a new vehicle. It actually is one of the world’s older IFVs. German firm Rheinmetall manufactured more than 2,000 Marders starting in 1969.

But the Marder despite its age remains one of the world’s better IFVs owing to its balance of speed, protection, firepower and capacity. Capable of traveling 40 miles per hour while carrying three crew and six infantry, the Marder can keep pace with tanks, drop off infantry in the middle of a firefight and then support those infantry with its 20-millimeter cannon.

Compared to a Soviet-designed BMP-1 or BMP-2 IFV—types that are notorious for their thin armor and tendency to blow up and burn when struck—a Marder is “like Tron,” one 82nd Brigade trooper said, referring to the science-fiction film series.

The 82nd Brigade’s Marders have been in the thick of the fighting in the south since this summer—and have proved highly survivable. The 82nd so far has written off just three of its 40 Marders.

That low attrition mean any extra Marders can go to a new brigade instead of merely making good the 82nd’s losses. Germany initially pledged just 40 Marders—half from the German army’s own active inventory, the other half from Rheinmetall’s stocks of surplus vehicles.

But Rheinmetall this summer explained it was sitting on another 60 Marders that were in good condition and eligible for transfer to Ukraine at a rate of 10 per month.

Berlin now has pledged all 100 of the available Marders. It’s not clear how quickly Rheinmetall or the German army—or some other Marder-operator—can free up additional vehicles.

A Ukrainian brigade needs at least a hundred IFVs fully to equip its mechanized battalions. The 82nd Brigade has complemented its roughly three-dozen surviving Marders with American-made Stryker wheeled IFVs. The 25th, it seems, will continue to operate BMP-2s and upgunned BMP-1s alongside its Marders.