The orders have been placed with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Europe's leading maker of armored wheeled and tracked vehicles, according to Defense News.

Under the deal, a first batch of 41 Dingo 2 vehicles will be delivered before the end of the year and will feature the basic all protected material and personnel transport vehicle.

"This short delivery period underlines the flexibility and industrial performance of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann," says Frank Haun, chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of KMW.

The remaining batch of 44 will include battle-damage repair vehicles that carry a mobile workshop, storage system and generators.

All of the 85 vehicles in order will be equipped with KMW's FLW 100 light weapons station, which can mount machine guns and other defensive weaponry that are controlled by the crew from inside the vehicle, according to a statement by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

The Dingo 2, an upgraded take of its predecessor Dingo 1, is also air transportable on C160-Transall, C130 Hercules and the A400M aircraft in all configurations.

News of the contracts, however, come as German forces in Afghanistan suffered additional losses this week, with three German soldiers killed and an other eight severely wounded in a heated crossfire with a group of 80 Taliban.

The attack in Kunduz began when the German patrol was on a mine-clearing mission, using the exact vehicles senior defense experts in Germany have criticized as being ill-prepared to use.

The incident flared already swelling debate in Berlin as to whether German soldiers are ill equipped in combat operations in Afghanistan.

Berlin has shied away from deploying heavy attack equipment into Afghanistan out of fear it would point to a war-like mission. Such a move would prove highly unpopular in largely pacifist Germany.

The Dingo 2 is currently considered the best protected wheeled vehicle in the world, offering its crew of up to eight members high- level protection against modern small arms, artillery shrapnel, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines and improvised explosive devices, a company statement said.

In all, a total of 240 Dingo 2s are set to be delivered to the German Army through 2011.

Next to Germany it is also used by Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Czech Republic.

Despite growing criticism over military hardware, military experts have also come to question the training of German soldiers.

In recent weeks, the country's outgoing parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Reinhold Robbe, criticized the way German soldiers were trained before being sent to Afghanistan, in particular with regard to the use of tanks and other armored vehicles.

"Our soldiers need thorough training with these vehicles -- before they are sent to Afghanistan to use them in combat situations. They must be confident enough that they can operate them in their sleep," Robbe said.

About 4,500 German troops have been deployed in strife-torn Afghanistan, working alongside other national contingents under a NATO command fighting against an insurgency that arose after the ouster of the Taliban regime in a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

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