The Marder is a German infantry fighting vehicle operated by the German Army as the main weapon of the Panzergrenadier (mechanised infantry) from the 1970s through to the present day.

Developed as part of the rebuilding of Germany's armoured fighting vehicle industry, the Marder has proven to be a successful and solid infantry fighting vehicle design.

While it does include a few unique features, such as the fully remote machine gun on the rear deck, it is overall a simple and conventional machine with rear exit hatch and side gun ports for mounted infantry to fire through. Its successor, the Puma, is under development.

The hull of the Marder 1 is all welded steel, giving protection from small-arms fire and shell fragments with the front of the hull providing protection from up to 20 millimetres APDS rounds. Later variants had increased protection up to 30mm APDS and the development of top attack cluster bomblets.

The Marder is powered by an MTU MB Ea-500 six-cylinder liquid cooled diesel engine which develops approximately 600 horsepower at 2,200 rpm. The cooling radiators are mounted at the rear of hull either side of the exit ramp.

The engine is coupled to a four speed gear box with four forward and two reverse gears. The transmission also provides steering and braking via a stepless hydrostatic unit which transmits power to two drive units mounted at the front of the hull. The vehicle carries 652 litres of fuel, giving it a road range of around 500 kilometres.

Primary armament is the 20 mm Rheinmetall MK 20 Rh202 autocannon mounted in the small two-man turret which can fire either armour-piercing or HE rounds. Mounted coaxially to the left of the cannon is a 7.62 mm MG3 machine gun.