German artillery guns are breaking down a month after they were delivered to Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported on Friday. The weapons are reportedly struggling to deal with the high rate of fire the Ukrainian military is subjecting them to.
Some of the seven Panzerhaubitze 2000 guns sent to Ukraine at the end of June are showing signs of “wear and tear,” the German news site reported, citing anonymous sources. Some of the hardware is displaying error messages and are in need of repair.
The German military believes that the problems stem from the sheer number of shells fired on a daily basis by Ukrainian forces, which is damaging the howitzers’ loading mechanism. Discharging 100 rounds per day is considered high-intensity use, the report noted, adding that the Ukrainians are firing “far more” than this number.
Despite apparently overloading the German guns, Kiev’s forces are still firing only a fraction of the shells that the Russian military is sending in return. Ukrainian officials stated earlier this month that their guns were going through 6,000 shells per day, compared to Russia’s 20,000. That workload is not distributed over an equal number of artillery pieces either, with Russia fielding 15 for every Ukrainian one.