The story about Puma being designed with the rules for pregnant woman in mind is widely circulated, but almost certainly false. The Bundeswehr clarified publicly that a tank is not a workplace as defined in those regulations.
There's certainly huge problems with procurement in the German military. But it's also not an uncommon story in other countries that the per-unit costs get really bad because the order is drastically reduced later.
Almost certainly false? The source is the CEO of the manufacturer who complained about specific requirements in the contracts issued by the Bundeswehr itself.
> For example, one of the more than 100 "relevant documents" for the development contract for the infantry fighting vehicle stipulates that the technical regulations for hazardous substances must also be observed. These stipulate that the carbon monoxide content must not exceed a certain limit, as otherwise there is a risk of "damaging the amniotic fluid" in pregnant soldiers. The air inside the Puma must therefore be so clean that even pregnant women can ride safely.
Another problem in a related vein: the Pumas have fire extinguishers which brick the vehicles by spraying powder into the engines. Normal extinguishers that keep the vehicle operational are banned because the gases aren't friendly enough to the ozone layer. This was admitted to be a problem and never fixed.
Manufacturers want to sell vehicles. They usually don't wish to comply with expensive rules as they do so. If they're complaining about regulations that make manufacturing hard, and doing things like equipping their vehicles with fire extinguishers that break the engines, then at minimum the Bundeswehr has screwed up its acquisitions and communications process so badly that its suppliers are confused about what they should do. More likely the manufacturers are correct and the people writing the rules didn't think through the consequences of what they wrote.
There's certainly huge problems with procurement in the German military. But it's also not an uncommon story in other countries that the per-unit costs get really bad because the order is drastically reduced later.