Rheinmetall-Leonardo bids for Italy's $21.5 billion armored vehicle project

Rheinmetall and Leonardo said they have formed a 50:50 joint venture to handle future orders for the development of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles based on Rheinmetall's Panther and Lynx models.

Panther tanks on display at the Rheinmetall stand at the Eurosatory International Defence and Security Exhibition in Paris. Photo: Getty Images

Italy's far-right government , led by Giorgia Meloni, has decided to spend 20 billion euros to upgrade the armoured vehicles used by the Italian army and wants as much manufacturing as possible to be done domestically to create jobs.

The Italian Defense Ministry , which could place the first orders of the program as early as this year, has previously said it would be willing to buy at least 250 tanks and hundreds of infantry fighting vehicles. The program would also include equipment maintenance.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Italy, where final assembly of the vehicles and certification testing will be carried out, along with other logistics.

Italian defence and aerospace company Leonardo had been in talks with Franco-German consortium KNDS to meet Italy's needs for jointly produced modern tanks based on the Leopard 2 model, but talks broke down last month.

KNDS said at the time that talks had broken down because they could not agree on the tank's configuration.

Equita Sim analyst Martino De Ambroggi said the deal with Rheinmetall signed on Wednesday (which requires European Commission approval) was positive for Leonardo as it ended uncertainty over international collaborations, which had been a priority for the company's CEO, Roberto Cingolani.

The deal with Rheinmetall also paves the way for Leonardo to participate in the Main Ground Combat System project, a Franco-German joint program to develop a European heavy tank to replace the Leopard 2 tanks currently in service with the German army and the Leclerc tanks used by the French army. Rheinmetall is already involved in that project.

These partnerships are being forged as Europe seeks to remove historical barriers to its defense companies working with competitors elsewhere on the continent, as part of a broader goal of building up its defense industry amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.

“We want to set new standards together and open the door to a new generation of modern combat vehicles in and for Europe,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said on Wednesday. “In doing so, we are addressing the Italian market as well as other partner countries that need to modernize their combat systems.”

Nguyen Khanh (according to Wall Street Journal)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/rheinmetall-leonardo-dau-thau-du-an-xe-boc-thep-215-ty-usd-cua-y-post302539.html