The German Bundeswehr has awarded Rheinmetall an order for 252 unprotected transport vehicles with payloads of five and fifteen tons. The order falls under a framework agreement concluded in 2017 for more than 2,200 state-of-the-art military trucks.
The deal is worth €92 million, with Rheinmetall set to build and deliver the vehicles before the end of 2019, including 161 5-ton trucks and 91 15-ton trucks.
The framework agreement is worth around €900 million for a total of 2,271 unprotected transport vehicles from Rheinmetall's HX family, with the first order issued for an initial lot of 558 vehicles.
Whilst the vehicles are largely made of German parts, they will be assembled at the Rheinmetall plant in Vienna.
Rheinmetall's trucks are currently used by the armed forces of Australia, the UK, NZ and Denmark. Norway and Sweden have also placed substantial orders.
Head Land Systems Major General Andrew Bottrell recently spoke to ADM about the progress of the ADF truck acquisition under Land 121.
“For 121 3B, IOC will look like the ability to deploy a protected battlegroup,” MAJGEN Bottrell said. “So that’s around 100 medium-heavyweight trucks in three configurations; the integrated load handling system, the heavy recovery vehicle, and the truck-tractor, as well as all the bulk liquid storage and maintenance modules.”
“For Phase 4, IOC will incorporate 138 mission systems, vehicles and trailers, plus their through-life support, passing a battlegroup operational test and evaluation activity.”