LRMV, the Leonardo Rheinmetall joint venture officially presented in Rome

Enrico Magnani

On October 15, 2024, at the Foreign Press Association conference room in Rome, the CEOs of Leonardo, Roberto Cingolani and Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, held a press conference for the official presentation of the new joint venture between the two companies specialized in defence.

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Cingolani, with the typical rigorous approach of scientists, underlined the strategic value and prospects of the joint venture, which aims to make a qualitative leap in the main land weapon systems, MBTs (Main Battle tanks) and AICS (Armored Infantry Combat System) primarily for the needs of the Italian Army. The basic idea is to create an innovative reality by pooling the specificities of the two firms to enable the armed forces facing upcoming challenges.

In the press conference the word “war” was mentioned several times and cleared; the threat originated from the Russian aggression against Ukraine is on the agendas of governments, general staffs and firms and the joint initiative of Leonardo and Rheinmetall aims to be a response to the new needs, the two CEOs said.

In this light Leonardo and Rheinmetall established a joint venture with the aim to set up a European pole focused on the development and production of military combat vehicles in Europe. The meeting of today followed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Rome in early July 2024.

Rheinmetall AG and Leonardo S.p.A. will be equal shareholders in the new company named Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles (LRMV), which will have its legal headquarters in Rome and an operational headquarter in La Spezia. Cingolani specified that the Rheinmetall share will be 40% of the German firm and 10% of Rheinmetall-Italy. The agreement is expected to be finalised in Q1 2025, and will be subjected to usual regulatory approvals for this sort of operation.

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Speaking with the media, Cingolani seemed to keep the door open to further cooperation and partnership with other firms in the industrial production aspects.

Armin Papperger stated that the two firms creating a new European hub for the development and production of military combat vehicles in Europe saying: “Leonardo and Rheinmetall, two leading European defence technology providers, are joining forces to realize ambitious projects. We are targeting the Italian market first, but we will also address other partner countries that will need to modernize their combat systems in the future”

Considering that the LRMV is a commercial initiative, the two partners are looking not only at the needs of the Italian Army, established in over 1,000 AICSs and 400 MBTs, but they have solid hopes that their products will be of interest also to other potential buyers. Papperger in this perspective estimated that the current MBT fleet of European nations is around 5,000 vehicles and urgently asks to be renewed, a similar need existing for infantry fighting vehicles, but in much larger figures. The LRMV initiative wants to put together platforms, command, control and communications systems, their interaction with satellites, drones and/or air-based systems in order to constitute an integrated package of flexible, lethal, mobile combat assets able to operate in multidomain environment.

The new family of vehicles will be equipped with advanced sensors, common language and fully digitalized systems.

Detailing the concept underlining the joint venture, Cingolani said that it is a ‘one plus one will make three’ operation, stressing the added values of putting together two and the slim structure that will be by intrinsic nature flexible and responding to the situations and needs with few people and a simple governance.

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The industrial plant of the LRMV will be in Italy, with a new plant, under construction in La Spezia, and the 60% of workload will be make in Italy, including integration, validation testing, delivery activities and logistics support.

Within the MBT and AICS programmes, the mission systems, electronic suites and weapons integration will be developed and produced by Leonardo according to the requirements of the Italian customer. Answering to the media questions about the calibre of the MBT gun, the two CEO said that this aspect, as others of the industrial initiative are in the hands of the Italian authorities. On this aspect Papperger hailed the approach of Rome on this issue and looks forward for a strong cooperation and dialogue, underlining the readiness to answer and work together.

The Italian Army requires 400 MBTs, developed from the Rheinmetall Panther KF51, that will replace the Ariete tanks, currently in service, and it will include engineer, bridge-layer, recovery versions. The AICS programme, which coincide with the Rheinmetall Linx KF41, and involves the procurement of over 1,000 armoured combat systems with a large number of variants, all models being based on a modular design.

Papperger, answering to media asking clarification about the Franco-German agreement to jointly develop a new MBT system with cutting-edge AI and laser weapons technology said that this is another project and has no impact or ties with the present one.

Photos courtesy Leonardo and Rheinmetall

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