LRMV details the Italian Army MBT and AIFV programmes

EDR On-Line editorial staff

The UTTAT Nettuno test establishment and firing range, which is part of the test ranges the Italian defence uses to test and develop new weaponry, witnessed the first public sortie of the forming Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles (LRMV) joint venture, participants being able to see on the field a Lynx infantry fighting vehicle that was taken from the Hungarian production line and deployed to Italy for a first round of testing in December 2024

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In the last few years, the Italian Army shifted its priority from medium to heavy brigades, the former being still considered and receiving new platforms, and has been looking for a new main battle tank and a new infantry fighting vehicle, to complement and/or replacing its Ariete and Dardo currently in use.

Following the introduction by Col. Paolo Paolo Ambrosanio, the Director of the facility, it was the turn of David Höder, the designated chairman of the new company, to take the floor providing the attendance with an update on the evolution of the agreement between the German and the Italian companies. “In the last month we worked out an agreement regarding the work share. We merged the best out of two worlds to be able to deliver to the Italian army the finest that both companies are able to deliver,” he told the audience, which included Gen. Luciano Portolano, the Italian Chief of Defence, Lt.Gen. Carmine Masiello, the Army Chief, and Dr. Luisa Riccardi, the General Secretary of Defence.

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“The joint venture will be established in the next one or two weeks and then we will reach for all the licences we need to operate in Italy from a legal and commercial point of view,” Mr. Höder added, explaining that to speed up the process an RTI (Raggruppamento Temporaneo d’Impresa, temporary grouping of companies) will be established in a week time to allow the Italian Defence to issue its Request for Proposal and the industrial team to start working on the offer. This will then be absorbed by the LRMV JV once this will be officially formed.

Further detailing the workshare, Laurent Sissmann, the designated CEO of LRMV explained: “The JV will receive the contracts from the Ministry of Defence and from the Italian Army and will split them half and half within Leonardo and Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall will then contract back to Rheinmetall Italy about 10% of the total content, which makes that on a territorial basis 60% of the value will be captured by the Italian territory.”

Confirming the numbers of the A2CS programme which will be heavily based on the Lynx platform, a total of 1,050 being the target, Mr. Sissmann said that it will adopt a phased approach. “Phase 1 is the Urgent Operational Requirement and includes five Lynx that will come in the Hungarian configuration with human-machine interfaces and manuals translated in Italian. These will then be retrofitted with the Leonardo HITFIST 30 turret, while 11 gap-filler Lynx will be produced with that same turret already installed.”

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This will be followed by the AICS Phase I, that will include development of the prototypes in all the 16 variants required by the Italian Army, the development of the SIL Lab static demonstrator to be used mainly for integration purposes, and that of six prototypes to be used in the validation and verification process. The next phase will see the launch of serial production and deliveries, and the finalisation of the latest R&D activities. Phase II will see the acquisition of the series contract for all 16 variants and verification and validation residual activities.

Switching to the main battle tank, here too Mr. Sissmann confirmed the numbers, the plan being to deliver 132 main battle tanks based on Rheinmetall’s Panther and about 140 special version platforms, in the bridge layer, recovery and engineering variants. “The potential programme phases are development and prototyping, followed by the main batch for serial deliveries and then the residual deliveries in the last batch,” he explained.

While the AICS UOR contract is expected at very short notice, the AICS Phase I and the MBT Phase I will follow as soon as possible, no date being provided.

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After describing the vehicle technical details, which are well known to EDR On-Line readers, the two LRMV representatives unveiled that the first five vehicles for Italy are already in production at Rheinmetall’s plant in Unterlüß, the process having started in late 2024, soon after the signature of the agreement between the two companies on October 15th, 2024. The first Lynx aimed to Italy will then be delivered in Q3/Q4 2025, UOR vehicles, as previously said, being in the Hungarian configuration to be then retrofitted, while the 11+ gap-fillers will follow in 2026. These will not only feature the HITFIST 30 turret but will also be fitted with Leonardo C2D/N EVO C4I system and with the company communications suite.

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Five main variants of the AICS will be produced, based on the Lynx modular chassis and all featuring the Leonardo C4I system, overall covering 16 different roles. The five are the IFV with the 30 mm turret, armed with the new Leonardo 30×173 mm X-Gun, the light tank with the 120 mm turret, the air defence variant, possibly with the Skyranger 30 turret, which is also of interest of Hungary, the mortar turret, the Italian Army apparently going for a turreted mortar, and a non-turreted version. EDR On-Line understood that the first AICS vehicles in the IFV configuration should be equipped with the two-man turret that will be fitted also on the Freccia Next Generation, the Italian Army having decided to adopt the 30×173 mm as its future calibre; however the final configuration of the AICS Combat should be equipped with the unmanned turret armed with the X-Gun, which is being developed for the VBA 8×8 amphibious vehicle on order by the Italian Navy.

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Considering the Lynx equipped with the HITFACT 120 turret, Rheinmetall will provide crew operators stations, the UGV launching device, dismount stations, the common chassis, radio system interface, guidance and navigation systems, laser and radar warning systems, passive and active protection, and IT systems. As for Leonardo, it will provide the turret, mast and radar, navigation system, radio system interface, the HITROLE 50 RCWS with its crew stations, the road assessment LIDAR, the C2 operator station, passive protection, as well as the Link 16/BMS interface. Similar workshare will be adopted on other variants.

Industry considers that both the light tanks and the air defence variants might have good export potential, eastern European countries looking for light and heavily armed platforms.

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The new MBT programme seems to be slightly behind the AICS one, less details being provided. What is sure is that Itali will maintain the 120 mm calibre and will exploit all the benefits of the Panther in terms of protection, mobility, and digitalisation. As for the specialist variants, LRMV will provide the Italian Army with the systems already in service with many NATO nations, that will be Italianised mostly in the C4I domain. EDR On-Line understood that the MBT contracts will see hulls manufactured half in Germany and half in Italy under license, while the 120 mm barrels shift will see 52 of them produced in Unterlüß and 80 in La Spezia under license, Leonardo currently investing in increased barrel manufacturing capability in its plant. La Spezia will also produce 50% of spare barrels. The turret structure, autoloader, chassis design and active protection systems will all come from Germany, while Italy will provide the powerpack, passive protection, target acquisition, fire control system and electric turret drive controller, obviously the C2D/N EVO C4I system, and will be responsible for the final commissioning to the customer.

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The work in Italy will be split between Leonardo, IDV and Rheinmetall Italy, and will geographically impact most of the peninsula, from Bolzano to Naples.

Overall, the programme will see the delivery of 1,347 vehicles, 272 MBTs in four configurations, 1,050 AICS and 16 Lynx UOR. While 2025 and 2026 will se the deliveries of the 16 Lynx UOR, 2027 will see the first 9 MBTs to be handed over to the Italian Army, including some specialised versions, 2028 marking the delivery of further tanks and that of the first AICS, for a total of 21 platforms. The following year, 2029, will see production increase by an order of magnitude, the delivery of 104 vehicles being planned, with both tanks and infantry vehicles starting to be handed over in all planned variants. In 2030 production will reach 160, the peak year being 2031 with 171.

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These first years will be the most challenging ones for industry, considering the steep ramp up. The production rate will then be slightly reduced in the four following years, while always remaining over the 100 marks, and then decrease slightly under that number to reach the latest deliveries with the 75 vehicles planned for 2040. It is to note that the MBT programme deliveries should be finalised by 2035, the last five years seeing the delivery of only AICS platforms. Industry estimates that over 10 years export opportunities might reach 700 units, which might add numbers to the previously mentioned ones.

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Following the briefing, the action moved to the UTTAT. Col. Paolo Ambrosanio detailed the tests carried out in the recent past on the Lynx that was made available by Rheinmetall for this first contact between the Italian Army and the KF41 platform. Following preliminary tests on the main 30 mm cannon, which on this vehicle is Rheinmetall’s MK30-2, and on the secondary coaxial weapon. First firings were done against static targets from static position, increasing difficulty firing on the move against static targets and finally on the move against moving targets. Kinetic Energy Time Fused (KETF) airburst munitions were also tested. Tests were also carried out on the Lynx obscuring system, capable to hide the vehicle from enemy eyes both in the visual and infrared spectrums.

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During the live demonstration three KETF rounds were shot in the least challenging test, static on static, targets being 44 aluminium plates at an estimated 500 metres distance. Tests were also conducted shooting at the same time with 30- and 12.7-mm weapons. Finally, the Lynx moved towards the target, releasing a five-round burst against a 40 mm thick ballistic steel target.

Images and photos courtesy LRMV, E. Magnani and L. Peruzzi

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