German military places order for up to 6,500 trucks

Unprotected Transport Vehicles (UTF) | Photo: RMMV GmbH

Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s military has placed a major order for up to 6,500 lorries in the coming years under a deal worth as much as EUR 3.5 billion (USD 3.8 billion) with armaments manufacturer Rheinmetall.

The Defence Ministry has placed firm orders for 610 vehicles, worth around EUR 312 million, so far.

Shipments of 250 transport lorries are expected to be available in November to Germany’s military, known as the Bundeswehr, according to the Bundeswehr‘s procurement office in the western city of Koblenz.

The framework agreement between the procurement office and Rheinmetall stipulates that the Bundeswehr can order additional vehicles flexibly as required.

According to the procurement office, the trucks are intended to ensure logistical supplies at home and during military exercises.

Additional Reporting By StratPost

According to the Bundeswehr, it plans to commission up to 6,500 Unprotected Transport Vehicles over the next seven years. A Bundeswehr statement said the an agreement was signed for the production and production of transport vehicles in the load classes 3.5 tonnes, 5 tonnes and 15 tonnes with the Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicle (RMMV) GmbH company.

Unprotected Transport Vehicle (UTF) | Photo: Carl Schulze/RMMV GmbH

The statement quoted President of BAAINBw (Federal Office of Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Federal Armed Forces), Annette Lehnigk-Emden as saying, “With the first delivery of eight military, unprotected trucks in 2018, the success story of the UTF 5t vehicle family and 15t in the Bundeswehr began. These vehicles were so indispensable for the replacement of the old fleet that the first procurement framework contract with an inlet of 3,271 vehicles was exhausted early.”

The statement further added that the ‘costs for the first fixed commission of 610 vehicles of the all-wheel-drive two-, three- and four-axle military truck amount to around EUR 312 million and are financed by both the Special Forces and the regular defence budget. 250 of these will be available to the troupe from November of this year. The framework agreement allows the Bundeswehr to order further vehicles flexibly as required. The project was approved last week by the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag within the framework of a so-called 25 million-euro template.’

Manufacturer Rheinmetall called the order the ‘largest order in the company`s history concerning logistic vehicles by the Bundeswehr, adding, that ‘Rheinmetall AG will book the order in the third quarter of 2024 of the current fiscal year.’ The company also said in its statement that ‘In addition to that, a new vehicle category will be introduced via the framework-contract: the 4×4 UTF 3.5t. It has a maximum of identical parts to the UTF family.’

Michael Wittlinger, Chairman of the management of Rheinmetall Military Vehicles GmbH, was quoted in the statement as saying, “The framework-contract is an essential contribution to a fast fulfilment of demand by the logistic forces of the Bundeswehr,” adding, “The standardized vehicle family and the uniformity with vehicles of other beneficiary nations establish the HX-vehicles as the main logistic vehicles within NATO and set a standard for interoperability and logistic efficiency within the alliance.”

Rheinmetall Explainer

UTF and WLS are based on the robust HX-family of RMMV. From the beginning, it was designed for military use and is characterized by high mobility, also in heavy terrain. The large world-wide distribution of the HX-vehicle family offers major advantages concerning interoperability and logistics, especially with respect to multinational missions. In addition to Germany, the user group currently includes the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Singapore, Slovenia, Denmark and Ukraine. The newly placed order highlights the high acceptance of the tried-and-tested HX-vehicles of which about 20,000 are already in use world-wide.