Rheinmetall will launch production in Ukraine in 2024

The German arms concern Rheinmetall will launch production and begin producing armored vehicles in Ukraine in the coming 2024.

How reports General Director of the company Armin Papperger, the plant will produce Lynx infantry fighting vehicles and Fuchs armored personnel carriers:

“Once the contract is signed, we want to release the first Fuchs within 6-7 months and the first Lynx within 12-13 months.”

The corresponding agreement with Ukraine will be concluded at the beginning of 2024. According to Papperger, serial production of armored personnel carriers in Ukraine will begin in the late summer of 2024, and of infantry fighting vehicles in the summer of 2025. The release of Panther tanks is not being considered at this stage.

Rheinmetall does not intend to build new factories in Ukraine, clarifies Armin Papperger; instead, the concern plans to rent and re-equip existing facilities. The general director of the company believes that through joint efforts it will be possible to ensure their safety:

“They seem to be fairly well protected, at least that’s what the experience of the last two war years has shown.”

In October, JSC “Ukrainian Defense Industry” and Rheinmetall registered a joint venture that would help with local production of key equipment, maintenance and repair of Western weapons. The company will be based in Kyiv. First of all, it is planned to establish repairs of German equipment, including PzH 2000 – self-propelled artillery units (self-propelled guns) from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann company.

Rheinmetall is Ukraine’s largest defense-industrial partner. In 2022, the concern received orders worth €900 million, and in 2023 their volume increased to €2.5 billion. Papperger predicts that the trend will continue next year. In March, he spoke of plans to build a tank factory in Ukraine to produce the latest Panther tanks. Then Papperger noted that the cost of the project would be about €200 million, and the company would be able to produce up to 400 cars per year. The Panther is the latest model of Rheinmetall’s modern battle tanks. No army in the world uses them yet. They are currently in the pre-production prototype stage*.

*What is a pre-production prototype? Develop a final pre-production prototype to validate the design before production tooling and first production run. A pre-production prototype doesn’t have to look good to impress anyone. These are all aimed at confirming the final design before committing to expensive tooling for fabrication.

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