Yuri Kobzar23:25, 01.12.23

The first products can be manufactured as early as the second half of the year.

The German arms concern Rheinmetall Group plans to launch production of its armored vehicles in Ukraine as early as 2024. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said this in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche .

According to him, he expects to conclude a corresponding contract with Ukraine for the construction of the Fuchs wheeled armored personnel carrier and the latest Lynx infantry fighting vehicle at the beginning of next year.

“Once the contract is signed, we want to have the first all-wheel drive vehicle in Ukraine in about six to seven months, and the first Lynx in 12 to 13 months,” Papperger said.

He explained that the production of Fuchs armored personnel carriers in Ukraine will become possible from the end of the summer of 2024, and the production of Lynx infantry fighting vehicles could start in the summer of 2025. At the same time, Papperger wants to transfer the latest combat vehicles to Ukraine much earlier. 

“The first ten Lynx armored vehicles are already being manufactured here in Germany or in Hungary, in a joint production between us and Ukraine. After the ramp-up phase, we will quickly be able to produce a significant number of these vehicles entirely in Ukraine,” he said.

Papperger explains the unusually short lead time because the collaboration went well. Rheinmetall is already Ukraine’s largest partner in the defense industry. In 2022, the group received orders worth approximately 900 million euros, and in 2023 the volume of orders increased to approximately two and a half billion euros. 

“And next year there will definitely be more of them,” Papperger predicts, emphasizing that Ukraine has already established servicing of German armored vehicles, for which Ukrainian specialists were trained in Germany.

The head of Rheinmetall assures that he sees no problems with the safety of the concern’s Ukrainian factories. 

“We are not building new plants; rather, like Rheinmetall, we will lease existing plants, refurbish them and then operate them. And they seem to be quite well protected – at least that is what the experience of the last two years of the war has shown,” he says .

Cooperation of Ukraine with the Rheinmetall concern

As UNIAN wrote, in November it became known that Rheinmetall intends to produce 100 thousand mortar ammunition for Ukraine . Deliveries are expected to begin soon and will continue for the next two years.

It was also reported that next year Rheinmetall should deliver 25 Leopard 1A5 battle tanks , five Bergepanzer 2 armored recovery vehicles and two training tanks to Ukraine.

(C)UNIAN 2023