German Army in the context of "Self-propelled artillery"

The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 2'), with the development name Aggregat-4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings of German cities. The V2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A4, which went to war as the V2. Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 V2s were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while a further 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.

The Leopard 2 is a third generation German main battle tank (MBT). Developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s, the tank entered service in 1979 and replaced the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West German army. Various iterations of the Leopard 2 continue to be operated by the armed forces of Germany, as well as 13 other European countries, and several non-European countries, including Canada, Chile, Indonesia, and Singapore. Some operating countries have licensed the Leopard 2 design for local production and domestic development.

There are two main development tranches of the Leopard 2. The first encompasses tanks produced up to the Leopard 2A4 standard and are characterised by their vertically faced turret armour. The second tranche, from Leopard 2A5 onwards, has an angled, arrow-shaped, turret appliqué armour, together with other improvements. The main armament of all Leopard 2 tanks is a smoothbore 120 mm cannon made by Rheinmetall. This is operated with a digital fire control system, laser rangefinder, and advanced night vision and sighting equipment. The tank is powered by a V12 twin-turbo diesel engine made by MTU Friedrichshafen.

The Strong Europe Tank Challenge was an annual, multinational tank platoon competition held from 2016 to 2018 at Grafenwöhr Training Area, Germany, and hosted by the U.S. Army Europe and the German Army. In February 2025 the competition was held again after a 7 year hiatus, although renamed to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa International Tank Challenge.

The Bundeswehr (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌveːɐ̯] , lit. Federal Defence) are the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part (armed forces or Streitkräfte) and a civil part. The military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, German Navy, German Air Force and Cyber and Information Domain Service, which are supported by the Bundeswehr Support Area.

As of 30 April 2025, the Bundeswehr had a strength of 182,496 active-duty military personnel and 80,770 civilians, placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world, and making it the second largest in the European Union behind France. In addition, the Bundeswehr has approximately 860,000 reserve personnel (2025). With the German military budget at $100 billion (€86.37 billion) for 2025, the Bundeswehr is the fourth-highest-funded military in the world, though military expenditures have until recently remained low at an average at 1.5% of national GDP, well below the non-binding NATO target of 2%. In 2024, Germany fulfilled NATO obligations of spending 2% of its GDP on its armed forces. Germany is aiming to expand the Bundeswehr to around 203,000 soldiers by 2031 to better cope with increasing responsibilities.

The Army Medical Service (German: Sanitätsdienst Heer or Sanitätsdienst des Heeres) is a non-combat specialty branch of the German Army traditionally responsible for providing medical services within the army, and which has a humanitarian function during armed conflicts in accordance with international humanitarian law, and specific rights and responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions, their additional protocols and customary international humanitarian law. It is entitled under international humanitarian law to use the red cross as a protective sign and its personnel are protected persons under international humanitarian law. Since 2002, most of its former responsibilities have been transferred to the Joint Medical Service. The Army Medical Service still exists as a small entity within the German military.

The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (German: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, and was dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I (1914–1918). In the Federal Republic of Germany, the term Deutsches Heer refers to the German Army, the land component of the Bundeswehr.

A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses by military snipers. The modern sniper rifle is a portable shoulder-fired rifle with either a bolt action or semi-automatic action, fitted with a telescopic sight for extreme accuracy and chambered for a high-ballistic performance centerfire cartridge.

A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank, is a tank that fills the role of armour-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension systems and lighter composite armour allowed for the design of a tank that had the firepower of a super-heavy tank, the armour protection of a heavy tank, and the mobility of a light tank, in a package with the weight of a medium tank. The first designated MBT was the British Chieftain tank, which during its development in the 1950s was re-designed as an MBT. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the MBT replaced almost all other types of tanks, leaving only some specialist roles to be filled by lighter designs or other types of armoured fighting vehicles.

Main battle tanks are a key component of modern armies. Modern MBTs seldom operate alone, as they are organized into armoured units that include the support of infantry, who may accompany the tanks in infantry fighting vehicles. They are also often supported by surveillance or ground-attack aircraft. The average weight of MBTs varies from country to country. The average weight of Western MBTs is usually greater than that of Russian or Chinese MBTs.