Was ist das?

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Das ist ein Wiesel.

For those of you who spreche kein deutsch, that, meine Damen und Herren, is a "Weasel." I know, I know, it doesn't look like a politician, nor is it. (Quite frankly I am tired of comparing politicians to certain animal species, weasels are very useful critters, as are hyenas, jackasses, vultures, and sea slugs. Comparing politicians to animals insults the animal. Just wanted to put that out there.)

Anyhoo. Why this little squirt of an armored vehicle? Seriously, what was the Bundeswehr¹ thinking? This little tankette-looking² crate would get chewed up by the first real tank it ran into!

They were thinking the same thing every other nation who has ever deployed light infantry transported by either helicopter (airmobile) or dropped out of an aircraft with parachutes (airborne). While airmobile/airborne troops are delightful for performing a vertical envelopment of an enemy force and can badly surprise the enemy's rear area, once the enemy gets their act together, if they do, those light infantry chaps are surrounded, behind enemy lines, and have stirred up a hornet's nest. (Ever seen the movie A Bridge Too Far, or are familiar with Operation Market Garden?) It probably won't end well for them.

So every now and then some boffin will sit down and say, "Hey, what if we could design a small armored vehicle which can fly in with the airmobile or be dropped with the paras? It would give the chaps something to fight off random armored vehicles until they are relieved."

Well, okay, not a bad idea. However, executing that concept is a lot harder. They did try dropping the Wiesel out of an aircraft using parachutes, after they destroyed four of them, they gave it up as a bad idea. Apparently though a CH-53 can carry two of them at a time. So the airmobile idea is still a go.

Thing is, it's a tiny vehicle, it would be hard to spot if one is trundling about in a regular tank or even a reasonably size scout car or armored personnel carrier. I mean there are lots of paras running about taking pot shots at the commanders of those vehicles so they would probably stay buttoned up (hatches closed) if they wanted to survive the war. That gives the Wiesel an advantage.

Thing is though, the original was only armed with a 20 mm auto-cannon. Sounds gnarly but it's pretty much a useless weapon against anything with "reasonable" armor, which I define as being able to stop, well, 20 mm auto-cannon fire. (Which the Wiesel is not.) In fact, this vehicle from early in WWII was probably a lot more effective than the Wiesel -

German PzKpfw II Ausf. C at the Musée des Blindés
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Of course, you couldn't drop that PzKpfw II from an aircraft, heck, it wouldn't fit on the aircraft of the period. Still and all, a useful vehicle until it ran into a real tank. (What's a real tank? Well, that depends...)

I'm sure the paratroopers/airmobile guys would like the idea of having something like the Wiesel running around with them in the enemy's backcountry.  Thing is, that 20 mm cannon isn't that useful. Later versions were equipped with TOW³ missiles, which made them more useful, but not as useful as the man-portable anti-tank missile systems that were being fielded by a number of armies. Now the paras could carry a bit more punch with them, no need for the Wiesel.

To give you an idea of the size of this wee beastie -

Wiesel 1 equipped with the TOW missile system
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Wiesel 1 next to a real tank self-propelled armored howitzer*
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Useful? Probably not in a real war scenario (peer opponent, i.e. someone who can fight back), in a guerrilla war, civil unrest? Might be useful, but then again, you wouldn't necessarily need that airmobile ability in the latter case, but in a guerrilla war? Who knows. But they stopped building them in 1993. Still would be cool to own one, neh?



Suggested Reading:

• The Wiesel AWC
• The Wiesel
• Rheinmetall Landsysteme Wiesel

Hat tip to Stefan for the idea for this post. No, no, no, you can't blame him if you thought the post sucked, the idea was sound, perhaps the execution wasn't that good. Did you just call me a weasel?

* Angus spotted the fact that the vehicle next to the Wiesel is not a tank, it's a self-propelled armored howitzer, PzH 2000. I need to look at the pictures I use much more closely I guess.
¹ The Bundeswehr, (federal armed forces) are the successor to the WWII Wehrmacht and are the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, i.e. the Bundesrepublikdeutschland.² A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting. Colloquially it may also simply mean a small tank. (Source)
³ The TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missile system is very useful against full-sized armored vehicles. There is also a man-portable version, obviating the need for the Wiesel.