Rheinmetall: Tank production in Ukraine expected to start in 2024 WirtschaftsWoche

Rheinmetall wants to build the first tanks in Ukraine as early as 2024. The first are the Fuchs armored personnel carrier and the Lynx armored personnel carrier.

The Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Group wants to build the first tanks in Ukraine as early as 2024. As Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger explained in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche, he hopes that a corresponding contract will be concluded with Ukraine for the construction of the Fuchs wheeled transport vehicle and the Lynx infantry fighting vehicle by early next year at the latest.

“As soon as the contract is signed, we want to have the first all-wheel drive vehicle ready in Ukraine after about six to seven months – and the first Lynx after 12 to 13 months,” Papperger told WirtschaftsWoche. Production of Ukraine’s Fuchs will be possible from late summer 2024 and Puma’s competitor Lynx could follow in summer 2025.

Papperger wants to deliver newly built main battle tanks to Ukraine much sooner. “The first ten Lynx vehicles are already being manufactured here in Germany or Hungary in co-production between us and Ukraine”, informed the manager. “After a start-up phase, we should quickly be able to produce a significant number of these vehicles entirely in Ukraine.” The federal government has signaled that it will grant the necessary export license for production.

Papperger explains the unusually short delivery time with the fact that the collaboration has progressed well. Rheinmetall is already the largest partner in Ukraine’s defense industry. The group received orders worth around 900 million euros in 2022, and in 2023 the volume of orders rose to around two and a half billion euros. “And next year there will certainly be more,” predicts Papperger. Series production of the Lynx is already underway in Hungary. Furthermore, armored vehicles are maintained in Ukraine and skilled workers from Ukraine have been trained in Germany for this purpose.

He is not concerned about the security of the factories of the future Defense Industry of Rheinmetall Ukraine. “We are not building new factories; instead, like Rheinmetall, we will rent existing factories, convert them and then operate them,” comments Papperger. “And they seem to be very well protected.” At least that is what the experience of the last two years of war shows.

Read too: Why Rheinmetall is building a factory in Ukraine