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| Schützenpanzer Marder 1 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A German Army Marder 1 in 2012 | |
| Type | Infantry fighting vehicle |
| Place of origin | West Germany |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1971–present |
| Used by | Bundeswehr |
| Wars | |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Rheinmetall Landsysteme |
| Designed | 1959–1969 |
| Manufacturer | Rheinmetall Landsysteme Maschinenbau Kiel |
| Unit cost | $390,000 2.28 million |
| Produced | 1969–1975 |
| No. built | 2,137 (incl. Marder 2 prototype) |
| Specifications (Marder 1) | |
| Mass | 28.5 t (31.4 short tons) Marder 1A1/A2 33.5 t (36.9 short tons) Marder 1A3 |
| Length | 6.79 m (22 ft 3 in) |
| Width | 3.24 m (10 ft 8 in) |
| Height | 2.98 m (9 ft 9 in) |
| Crew | 3 crew + 6 passengers (prior to MILAN: 3+7) |
| Armor | Welded steel, protection up to 20 mm APDS DM43 from 0 m and 25 mm APDS from 200 m (220 yd) |
Main armament | 20 mmRheinmetallMK 20 Rh 202 automatic cannon 1,250 rounds MILANATGM launcher |
Secondary armament | 7.62 mmMG3 machine gun 5,000 rounds |
| Engine | MTU MB 833 Ea-500diesel engine 441 kW (591 hp) |
| Power/weight | 15.7 kW/t (21.1 hp/t) |
| Transmission | RENK HSWL 194 |
| Suspension | Torsion bar |
| Ground clearance | 0.45 m (18 in) |
| Fuel capacity | 652 L (143 imp gal; 172 US gal) |
Operational range | 520 km |
| Maximum speed | 75 km/h (47 mph)Marder 1A2 65 km/h (40 mph) Marder 1A3 |
TheSchützenpanzer Marder 1 (German pronunciation:[ˈʃʏt͜sn̩ˌpant͜sɐˈmaʁdɐˈaɪ̯ns];"Schützen"[-carrying]"Armour"[-ed] [fighting vehicle] "Marten 1") is a tracked Germaninfantry fighting vehicle designed for use with the West GermanPanzergrenadiere units,mechanized infantry specialized forIFV combat. It has been operated by theGerman Army as the mainPanzergrenadiere IFV since the 1970s through to the present day. Developed as part of the rebuilding ofWest Germany'sarmoured fighting vehicle industry, the Marder has proven to be a successful and solidinfantry 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.
Around 2,100 were taken into service by the West German army in the early 1970s, but the vehicle in its original form was not sold to any foreign militaries. As the German army began to retire older vehicles, the Chilean government agreed to acquire 200 Marders; the government of Greece has considered the purchase of 450 retired vehicles in the past. Argentina uses a simplified and locally produced variant, theVCTP, and has a number of vehicles based on that platform constructed by Henschel and built by TAMSE.
The Marder 1's successor, originally theMarder 2 project in the 1990s, was cancelled, leading to thePuma gradually replacing the Marder in the 2010s.
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Development of the Marder ran from January 1960, when the first development contracts were issued, to May 1971, when the first production vehicles were given to the West German army.
The vehicle was intended to be an improvement over theSchützenpanzer Lang HS.30. The main requirements were:
Initially, development contracts were awarded to two groups of companies: the Rheinstahl group (Rheinstahl-Hanomag, Ruhrstahl, Witten-Annen, Büro Warnecke) and the second group comprising Henschel Werke and the SwissMOWAG company. This resulted in the production of seven prototype vehicles. A second set of eight prototype vehicles were built between 1961 and 1963. Development priority was then switched for a while to the development of theJagdpanzer 90 mm Kanone.
In 1967, after military requirements were finalized, a third and final set of ten prototypes were built. Final development work was completed by the Rheinstahl group. 10 pre-production vehicles were built and completed troop trials with the West German army between October 1968 and March 1969. In May 1969, the vehicle was named the "Marder" after theEuropean pine marten, an agile, short-legged, bushy-tailed, medium-sized carnivorous mammal in the weasel family. In October Rheinstahl was chosen as the prime contractor.
The first production Marder was handed to the West German army in May 1971. Production of the vehicle continued until 1975, with 2,136 vehicles being completed.
In 1975, theMILAN anti-tank guided missile was adapted to be fired by the commander from his open hatch. Between 1977 and 1979 MILAN missiles were fitted to the Marders.
A number of upgrade programs were carried out, that included fitting night vision equipment and a thermal imager, as well as an upgraded ammunition feed to the 20 mm cannon.
Around 1985, the designation was changed to Marder 1 (until then it was simply Marder) since a follow-up IFV was under construction. The new vehicle was supposed to be the partner of theLeopard 2, just like Marder was the companion to the Standardpanzer/Leopard 1, it was named Marder 2 and the older vehicles re-designated.
The A3 upgrade program began in 1988. Thyssen-Henschel was awarded a contract to upgrade 2,100 Marder 1 A1/A2 series vehicles to A3 standard, at a rate of 220 a year. The first upgraded vehicles reached the West German army in November 1989. The modification package included:
The hull of the Marder 1 is all welded steel, giving protection from small-arms fire and shell fragments. The front of the hull provided protection from up to 20 mmarmour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) rounds. Later variants increased protection up to 30mm APDS, in response to the 30 mm autocannon armedBMP-2 and the development of top-attack cluster bomblets.
The Marder is a relatively conventional design, with the driver sitting at the front left side of the hull with the engine to the driver's right. The driver has three day periscopes mounted in a hatch that opens to the right. The center periscope can be replaced by a passive night vision device. Behind the driver is a seat for a single infantryman. In early versions of the Marder, this infantryman had a hatch that opened to the right and a periscope that could be rotated through 360 degrees. This hatch was removed in the 1A3 variant onwards.
In the centre of the hull is the two-man turret, which holds the commander on the right and the gunner on the left. Only the commander is provided with a hatch. The commander has eight day periscopes for all round observation and the gunner has three. The primary sighting system is the PERI-Z11 sight, which has either 2× or 6× optical magnification. From version 1A2 on, there is an additional thermal sight with 2x and 8x magnification.[1] To the rear of the turret is the troop compartment, which can hold six infantry men, sitting back to back facing outwards along the center of the hull.
The Marder is capable of fording in up to 1.5 meters of water unprepared. It can be fitted with a kit allowing it to ford water up to 2.5 meters deep.
The vehicle is powered by anMTU MB 833 Ea-500 six-cylinder liquid-cooledsequentially turbochargeddiesel engine which delivers approximately 441 kW (600 PS; 591 hp) at 2,200 rpm. The cooling radiators are mounted at the rear of the hull, either side of the exit ramp. The engine is coupled to aRenk four speed HSWL 194 planetary gear box, with four forward and four reverse gears. The transmission also provides steering and braking via a stepless hydrostatic unit, which transmits power to two drive units mounted at the front of the hull. The vehicle carries 652 liters of fuel, giving it a road range of around 500 kilometres. Early Marders could achieve a road speed of 75 km/h in 4th gear, but the extra armour of later vehicles reduced this to 65 km/h.
The Marder is propelled by a Diehl track, which can be fitted with rubber road pads or metallic grousers for improved mobility in snow. The drive mechanism consists of six rubber tyred road wheels, with a drive sprocket at the front of the hull and an idler at the rear. Three return rollers are fitted. The suspension is atorsion bar system, with hydrostatic shock absorbers fitted to the front two and last two road wheels.
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The primary armament is the 20 mmRheinmetall MK 20 Rh202autocannon. It is mounted in the small two-manturret and can fire either armour-piercing orHE rounds. Mountedcoaxially to the left of the cannon is a 7.62 mmMG 3 machine gun. The turret has 360 degree traverse, and can elevate from −17 degrees to +65 degrees, at a rate of 40 degrees per second while traversing at a rate of 60 degrees a second.
Early production Marders, up to and including version 1A1 had a second, rear-facing MG 3 mounted on the rear deck in a remote controlled pod and operated by one of the mounted infantry using a co-axial PERI-Z12 periscope sight (with a 180° horizontal traverse arc and a vertical arc of -15° to +55°). Typically, 1,250 rounds are carried for the 20 mm cannon, along with a further 5,000 rounds for the MG3.
On models since version 1A1A, aMILAN anti-tank guided missile launcher can be attached to the turret to provide enhancedanti-armour capabilities. Typically, four missiles are carried inside the vehicle.
There are four gun ports, two per side, which can be used by mounted infantry to provide additional fire against attacking infantry targets. Only Marder 1A1 and 1A2 were equipped with this. Marder 1A3 and above do not have gun ports due to the fitting of an extra layer of armour and outside storage boxes.
Six 76-millimeter-diameter smoke grenade dischargers can create a visual andinfrared blockingsmoke screen.
With the first unit delivered in summer 1971, the Marder IFV remained untested in combat for 38 years until July 2009 when they defended a German combat outpost against theTaliban in Chahar Dara district ofAfghanistan'sKunduz Province, killing and wounding scores of enemies. Since then, the Marders have been involved in heavy fighting several times. The vehicles have proved to be extremely useful and have been praised as a great tactical asset by German troops.[2] However, the crews have been subject to great physical stress as none of the vehicles are equipped withair conditioning systems.[3]
Two Marders were damaged by improvised explosive devices in the course of a German-led offensive on Taliban fighters in Quatliam, on 31 October 2010. Later in the battle, code-named by the Coalition "Operation Halmazag", a single Marder beat off a Taliban attempt to outflank positions held by German paratroopers.[4] On 2 June 2011, a German Marder was destroyed near Kunduz by a 200 kg (440.91 lbs.) IED, killing one soldier and injuring five others.[5]
The Marder was deployed during theKosovo War as part of the German peacekeeping forces sent as part of NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR).
On 29 March 2023,Ukrainian Minister of DefenceOleksii Reznikov announced that Marders donated from Germany during the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine had arrived in the country.[6] They were first used by the82nd Air Assault Brigade in August as part of the2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive; 100 vehicles had been delivered by that time.
According to the Oryx blog as of 9 May 2025, at least 47 Ukrainian Marders 1A3 had been visually recorded lost by photos or videos; 28 destroyed, 12 damaged or abandoned and 7 captured.[7][8]
TheMarder 1A3[9] is currently the most common version of this system, and is in service with the GermanBundeswehr. TheMarder 1A4 differs from the 1A3 only by the use of acryptography-capable radio-set. The newest version of the Marder is theMarder 1A5 with advanced mine protection. Only a small number of this variant is in service.
The Marder served as the basis forThyssen-Henschel's medium tank design which became theTAM forArgentina. A simplified version of the Marder is also employed as an infantry fighting vehicle, mortar carrier and command vehicle by theArgentine Army, realising most of the versions originally planned for the Bundeswehr and later abandoned due to costs and/or the availability of cheap alternatives like theM106 mortar carrier.
The Marder is used as a carrier for theRoland air defence system. TheKanonenjagdpanzer andRaketenjagdpanzer 2 started development as part of the Marder family but were realised based on the second batch of prototypes using different engines etc. The Kanonenjagdpanzer built for Belgium are a hybrid between the original Bundeswehr version and Marder parts. Some 4–6 test models of a 120 mm mortar on a Marder chassis were built, and at least one is in use as a firefighting vehicle at the WTS Meppen. Tests with an AAA tank were performed but the high weight of the system resulted in a switch to the heavier Standardpanzer chassis, resulting in the Gepard AAA system. At least one first or second generation prototype was equipped with the 110 mm artillery rocket system that later became the truck-mounted LARS system.
During theEurosatory Show 2012,Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH offered two further upgrades as part of theMarder Evolution family. The first upgrade was theMarder APC which features a newM151 Protector remotely controlled weapon, replacing the originalRheinmetall MK 20 Rh 202 automatic cannon, ballistic protection comparable to STANAG Level 4+, and mine protection comparable to Level 3a/3b+. The top deck has been lifted to enable improved ergonomics and uses a 440 kW (600 PS) MTU MB883 diesel. The other upgrade was theMarder Medium Tank which features a rifled, stabilized 105 mm OTO-Melara gun in a new turret.[11]
AtIndo Defence 2016, Rheinmetall exhibited theMarder Medium Tank RI ("RI" stands for "Republic of Indonesia"), which was offered to the Indonesian Army, at the time already operating the Marder 1A3. The tank used the Marder 1A3 hull, with the three-crewLeonardo HITFACT turret armed with an OTO-Melara 105 mm gun and two 7.62 mm machine guns used in coaxial and roof-mounted positions. The HITFACT turret was equipped with an advanced fire control system, linked with the commander and gunner sights, a laser rangefinder, and day/thermal sights for both the commander and gunner. Improvements included upgraded suspension, a new MTU diesel engine with 690 hp (510 kW), and the availability to mount a modular armour package.[12]
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Schützenpanzer Marder 2 was a 1991 prototype Germaninfantry fighting vehicle intended as a replacement design to the Schützenpanzer Marder 1. The project started in 1984 and was cancelled in 1992.
A prototype is preserved at theBundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology.
| Country | Type | Quantity (Estimated) | Origin | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chile | 1A3 | 280 |  Germany | 180 Marder 1A3 originally ordered from Germany in 2007 since the Dutch YPR-765 AIFVs and M113 APCs could not keep pace with their main battle tanks. Additional orders brought the total number to 280.[13] The first batch of 200 Marder 1A3s ordered included 7 driver-training vehicles and 30 broken down for spare parts. All sourced from Bundeswehr stocks.[14] |
| Germany | 1A2/1A3/ FlaRakPz 1 Roland (in storage with private industry) | ~1067 | West Germany Germany | 2,137 Marders built in total. 2,097 vehicles were upgraded to the Marder 1A3 standard between 1989-1998. 140 Marders were converted toRoland 2 tracked surface-to-air systems from 1978-1983, though the Roland systems were retired from service in 2005.[15] By 2009, Germany had approximately 1,911 operational Marder IFVs of the 1A2 and 1A3 variant. Many were sold off to other countries or to private companies like Rheinmetall. Following sales and exports to various countries, an estimated1067 remain in storage in various states of combat-capability as of 2023.[16] Hundreds are in outdoor storage withKMW's subsidiary Battle Tank Dismantling GmbH Koch inRockensußra,Thuringia where they are broken down and recycled.[17][18][19] |
| 1A3 [upgraded] | 262 | Germany | By 2017 the Bundeswehr owned382 Marder of the 1A3/1A4/1A5 variants, with only 212 in operational service as the others were undergoing refits contracted in 2016.[20][21][22] In 2020, Rheinmetall was contracted to further upgrade 260 Marder to have modern thermal imaging systems for gunner and commander.[23] Over 170 to be equipped with new drivers night vision sights.[24] The Bundeswehr has approximately262 active service Marder 1A3 following the transfer of 20 to Ukraine from its stocks in 2023.[25] Officially replaced with thePuma, the Marder will remain in service until at least 2025. | |
| 1A4 | 26 | Germany | 26 Marder 1A3s converted into command vehicles with SEM 93 long range radios. To be upgraded and continue to operate beyond 2025. | |
| 1A5 | 74 | Germany | 74 Marder 1A3s were upgraded by Rheinmetall to 1A5 variant between 2003-2004. In 2020, 71 of these were contracted to have their drivetrain upgraded with new power packs to enhance the vehicle's responsiveness and boost the engine output from 600hp to >750hp.[26][27] | |
 Greece | 1A3 | 40 | Germany | 40 Marder 1A3 were pledged to Greece by Germany as part of the latter's "Ringtausch" exchange program in exchange for Greece deliverying 40 BMP-1 vehicles to Ukraine.[28] It received its first 6 in November 2022.[29] 14 were delivered as of January 2023. Further deliveries to Greece were reportedly halted by Rheinmetall due to the company's commitments to deliver more Marder IFVs to Ukraine and a lack of supply.[30] However, all 40 were delivered by the July 2023.[31] |
 Indonesia | 1A2 | 26 | Germany | Germany initially approved the export of 50 Marder 1A2 to Indonesia in 2012.[32][33] Indonesia ordered 26 Marder 1A2, with deliveries scheduled between 2014-2016.[34][35] The first batch of Marder 1A2 reportedly arrived on August 8, 2014.[36] |
| 1A3 | 42 | Germany | 42 Marder 1A3s ordered from Rheinmetall, which began deliveries in 2015 from its own stockpiles.[37][38] | |
 Jordan | 1A3 | 75 | Germany | Jordan initially ordered 50 Marder 1A3 on 11 December 2016.[39] Rheinmetall was contracted to upgrade these from Bundeswehr stocks and deliver them by 2017.[40] In 2017, Rheinmetall was contracted to upgrade an additional 25 Marder 1A3 for Jordan.[41] All 75 delivered by the summer of 2020, including two driver training vehicles and spare parts.[42] |
 Ukraine | 1A3 | 140 (47 lost) 25 pending delivery | Germany | The first Marder 1A3 were delivered in March 2023. 20 Marder 1A3 delivered from Bundeswehr stocks, 60 delivered from Rheinmetall stocks as of 23 December 2023.[43] As of January 2025, 140 have been delivered by Rheinmetall, with an additional 25 ordered and pending delivery.[44][45] As 28 July 2025, 47 Marders were lost according to the Oryxblog.[7] |
Brazil had purchased 4Roland 2 systems on the German Marder 1A2 chassis along with 50 missiles in the late 1970s, with all 4 being retired from service in 2001.[46] In 2024, theBrazilian Army restored one of the vehicles for historical purposes.[47][48]As a result, initial batch of 120 Marder A3 TFVs was ordered in 2007. This was followed by additional orders, bringing numbers to 280 vehicles.
{{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help)'#Indonesia takes first delivery 26 #Leopard 2A6 #tanks 26 #Marder 1A2 #AIFV #rheinmetall #rdm'
