The first Marder-1’s have arrived in Greece!

It is a big day for the Greek military as the first Marder-1 crossed the border and arrived in Greece. This is the first of 40 Marder-1s that will be in the possession of the Greek military.

The Marder is an unprecedented upgrade to the maneuverability of Greek infantry, Ptisi reported.

Greece will immediately release the obsolete BMP-1 Ost, which will be transferred to Ukraine.

Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos and his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht agreed in September on the transfer of 40 BMP-1 armored combat vehicles from Greece to Ukraine, which will be replaced by 40 Marder armored combat vehicles to be transferred from Germany to Greece.

The agreement was a follow-up to the decision by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Chancellor Olaf Scholz last May to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia.

Speaking at a Bundeswehr conference, the German defence minister also said her country would provide two more multiple rocket launchers to Kyiv. Berlin, she said, has decided to deliver two more MARS II multiple rocket launchers, including 200 rockets to Ukraine.

She added that training of Ukrainian operators is expected to begin in September.

The Schützenpanzer Marder 1 is a German infantry fighting vehicle designed for use with the German Panzergrenadiere units (mechanised infantry specialised for IFV combat).

It has been operated by the German Army as the main Panzergrenadiere IFV from 1970s through to the present day. Developed as part of the rebuilding of Germany’s armoured fighting vehicle industry, the Marder has proven to be a successful and solid infantry fighting vehicle design.

While it used to include a few unique features, such as a fully remote machine gun on the rear deck and gun ports on the sides for infantry to fire through, these features have been deleted or streamlined in later upgrade packages to bring it more in line with modern IFV design (the MG has been moved to be a coaxial, the gun ports entirely welded shut and uparmored).

It is overall a simple and conventional machine with one large rear exit hatch and three top hatches for mounted infantry to fire from.