Germany has finally figured out how to build more ammo for the 1960s-era cannon Ukraine is using to blast Russian drones

• Ukraine has been using Cold War-era Gepard cannons to take down Russian drones and missiles.
• These systems have lacked sufficient ammunition, but the problem appears to have been solved.

A key NATO partner has finally figured out how to produce more ammunition for the Cold War-era Gepard cannons Ukraine has been using to battle Russian airborne threats, giving these crucial anti-aircraft weapons a much-needed firepower boost.

Ukraine has relied heavily on its arsenal of Gepards provided by Germany to blast low-flying Russian drones and missiles out of the sky. These self-propelled guns are a key plug in Ukraine’s multi-layered air-defense network because they’re highly mobile, have a simple design, and allow Kyiv to reserve its more advanced and expensive surface-to-air missiles for higher-end threats.

But the Gepards also lack sufficient ammunition because Switzerland, where the 35mm rounds used by this system are made, has refused allow the sale of these munitions to Ukraine as a result of its neutrality and prohibits other countries from re-exporting its defense products to countries at war. And Germany, meanwhile, had nothing more available in its ammunition stocks to send to Kyiv because the cannon was retired from service years earlier.

Now, the problem appears to have been solved — and at a critical moment.

Rheinmetall AG, a German arms manufacturer, previously produced ammunition for medium-caliber weapons in Switzerland. The company, however, said in a Sunday statement that it had moved production of the 35mm air-burst munitions to Germany earlier this year after signing a contract to make and deliver 300,000 rounds for Ukraine back in February.

One of the issues that Rheinmetall faced was that the tools to produce the original ammunition didn’t exist anymore in Germany. So the company had to adapt. It took existing 35mm ammunition from infantry fighting vehicles and modified it for the Gepard, which needed its fire control unit to recognize the new munitions.

“Despite their excellent performance, the electronics and fire control technology of the aging antiaircraft tank — developed in the 1960s — proved to be a veritable black box. At the same time, the supply chain for the new ammunition had to be expanded in order to minimize as far as possible the Swiss value-added share,” Rheinmetall said in the statement.

A Gepard gun successfully fired the ammunition in May, and Rheinmetall said on Sunday that “a first lot” of 35mm ammunition is now on its way to Ukraine. It’s unclear exactly how many rounds are included in this first package, but the company said it expects 40,000 rounds to be delivered by the end of the year.

Germany’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to several queries from Insider. The country’s list of military aid for Ukraine notes that Berlin has already outfitted Kyiv with tens of thousands of rounds for the 46 Gepards that it already has in its arsenal, and that another 300,000 rounds and six Gepards are “in planning/in execution.”

Rheinmetall said the 300,000 rounds it’s producing for Ukraine will be divided into two different types of ammunition: 150,000 rounds of APDS-T armor piercing munitions for heavy targets and another 150,000 of the conventional HEI-T high-explosive projectiles for aerial threats.

First developed in the 1960s, the Gepards have proven to be valuable assets for Ukraine’s military since they arrived on the battlefield last year. These guns, which are crewed by a team of three, are equipped with two automatic cannons that can fire 550 rounds a minute and hit targets up to roughly 3.7 miles away, and they can reach speeds of 40 mph.

The Gepards have been particularly useful in downing low-altitude Russian cruise missiles and drones, especially Iranian-made Shahed-136 loitering munitions that Moscow has used to terrorize Ukrainian civilians and the country’s civil infrastructure for over a year now. But the weapons had been hamstrung by insufficient ammunition.

“For Ukraine, they play an essential part in the struggle to control its airspace,” Rheinmetall said of the Gepards in the Sunday statement. “They are almost permanently in action, making ammunition consumption correspondingly high.”

The boost in available 35mm ammunition comes at a critical moment for the Ukrainian military, which continues to make small territorial gains in the eastern and southern regions amid a slow-moving and bloody counteroffensive. On the front lines of this fight, drones are an increasingly pervasive threat.

Russia has been increasing its domestic production of drones, and experts say Moscow’s unmanned attacks on targets across Ukraine are likely going to get bigger in size. And while the Ukrainian air-defense network is stronger and more sophisticated than it was this time last year, expanded drone attacks could still present a major headache for the systems Kyiv has in place.

Additional ammunition for the Gepards could allow the cannons to sustain a high rate of fire in the face of Russia’s drone attacks, freeing up other air-defense capabilities to eliminate additional threats.