Tank origin

The Marder 1 was an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) produced jointly by the firms Rheinstahl and MaK, with the German army taking possession of the first units in 1970. Between the late 1980s and 1998, almost 2,100 units received the updates that were part of the Marder 1A3 package. These included additional hull armor, a new roof hatch arrangement, and added stowage boxes, making the 1A3 variant one of the heaviest IFVs produced at the time.