WASHINGTON — The Italian Army plans to buy potentially dozens of tracked combat vehicles from the Leonardo-Rheinmetall Military Vehicles joint venture in the first joint order for the young team-up and an early step in modernizing Rome’s combat vehicle fleet, the firm announced today.
The order “brings the two companies, as well as two of Europe’s largest countries, closer together. Cooperation is not optional anymore — it is the very essence of our European strategic sovereignty,” David Hoeder, executive chairman of the German-Italian joint venture, said in a press release.
The release said the Italian Army will get five Rheinmetall Lynx KF-41 vehicles with Lance turrets, followed by 16 “newly configured vehicles equipped with the same chassis and Leonardo’s Hitfist 30mm turret.” The first vehicle is expected to be delivered by the end of this year, and eventually the first five Lynxes will also be upgraded to the new configuration.
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The agreement also includes options for an additional 30 vehicles, as well as “training and simulation systems to better train crews.”
Rheinmetall and Leonardo announced the creatively named joint venture in July 2024, with the aim of developing new Italian Army Main Battle Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles, based on existing Rheinmetall systems.
“With the newly developed Panther main battle tank and the new Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, Rheinmetall has the appropriate basic technology on which to build in both programmes,” the German company said at the time of the joint venture’s announcement.
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This first tranche of tracked vehicles falls “within the scope” of what’s known as A2CS, or the Army Armoured Combat System program, that the joint firm says involves the “total acquisition” of 1,050 armored combat vehicles. That, plus expected future contracts for the Main Battle Tank program, “will renew [the] Italian Army’s heavy vehicles fleet,” the joint venture said.