Next week, Germany will deliver the first RCH 155 howitzer to Ukraine, but there’s a catch.

Alongside air defense and armored vehicles, one of Germany's primary areas of assistance to Ukraine is modern artillery. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Germany has supplied 27 self-propelled artillery systems from Bundeswehr stocks or directly from production, with nearly 90 additional units to be delivered in the coming years.

The RCH 155 howitzer, one of the most advanced and effective artillery systems in the world, will make up the majority of the artillery systems ordered by Germany for Ukraine, as reported by the German Aid to Ukraine project.

As of today, it is known that 54 of these systems are expected to be delivered by around 2028/2029.

As stated by the spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense at today's federal press conference, Germany will be able to transfer the first RCH 155 self-propelled artillery unit to Ukraine as early as next week.

However, it is quite possible that this is not a direct delivery to the Ukrainian army, but merely a formal transfer of ownership to Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian military personnel to begin training on them in Germany, which is standard practice.

In fact, the CEO of KNDS Deutschland, Ralf Ketzel, mentioned in a media interview back in November 2024 that the first system would not be delivered to Ukraine before April 2025.

There remains uncertainty regarding the start of deliveries, which have been postponed several times, as the initial batch of 18 units – valued at approximately 216 million euros – was first announced back in 2022.

The reason for this is that the RCH has not yet been actively used by any army in the world, so the necessary industrial capacities were not available at the time and had to be developed first.

Regardless of whether Ukraine can deploy the first system on the battlefield, at least theoretically, in January or only three months later in April, the delivery will undoubtedly have only a local impact.

According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, only six RCH 155 units are expected to be delivered to Ukraine this year.

Larger quantities are anticipated to be supplied to Ukraine only at the beginning of next year.

Of course, this does not mean that there will be no additional supplies. Last year, a government spokesperson announced that Germany would supply Ukraine with over 20 artillery systems in 2025, as noted by an analyst.

Background. Meanwhile, it has become known that Scholz blocked military aid to Ukraine amounting to 3 billion euros – Der Spiegel. He believes that during the height of the election campaign, this could alienate voters from his SPD party.

At the same time, Pistorius promised during Ramstein to urgently transfer guided missiles to Ukraine. The country can count on Germany for military assistance, regardless of the outcome of the early elections on February 23, the defense minister added.