The issue concerns the construction of the company’s first plant in the country and the localization of the production of armored vehicles, ammunition, and missile systems.
Rheinmetall / © The Bild
The German defense concern Rheinmetall has proposed to Poland the implementation of a series of large-scale projects in the defense industry.
This is reported by Business Insider.
According to the publication, Rheinmetall has already sent a corresponding proposal to the Ministry of National Defense of Poland.
One of the key projects is the construction of Rheinmetall’s first plant in Poland, where they plan to manufacture modular modular charges MCS for 155-mm artillery ammunition.
In addition, the concern offers to organize the production of a family of heavy tracked support vehicles based on the Leopard 2 platform. This would include armored recovery vehicles ARV3, engineering vehicles AEV3, and bridgelayers. They are planned to be supplied to both the Polish and German armies, and the share of Polish enterprises in the production chain should be at least 50%.
However, the Polish armored vehicle expert and editor of Defence24, Damian Ratka, critically assessed this proposal in a commentary to “Militarny”.
“The strategic direction has been defined for a long time – these are the M1 Abrams and K2 Black Panther tanks. After the decommissioning of the last T-72 and PT-91, Leopard 2 tanks will become the oldest in the Polish Armed Forces and the next in line for decommissioning. Therefore, the Leopard 2 platform has no prospects in the Polish army. In my opinion, this is Germany’s last desperate attempt to maintain at least some presence in Poland,” he stated.
Rheinmetall also proposed to cooperate with the Polish enterprise Huta Stalowa Wola to establish the production of 30-mm automatic cannons with technology transfer and the creation of a complete production cycle.
Another project involves the localization of the production of GMARS launchers and missiles for them. This system is compatible with HIMARS ammunition and has twice the ammunition capacity.
In addition, the company plans to involve enterprises of the Polish armament group PGZ in the production of Boxer wheeled armored personnel carriers to fulfill German orders, and in the future, to offer this platform to the Polish army.
Rheinmetall also proposed to deploy the production of 120-mm tank ammunition in Poland in cooperation with PGZ. The concern believes that this will help standardize ammunition for various types of tanks in service with Poland.
At the same time, Business Insider notes that the American company BAE Systems has already signed a memorandum of understanding with two Polish defense enterprises regarding the potential localization of M88A2 armored recovery vehicle production. The parties also agreed to create military logistics vehicles based on trucks produced at the MAN plant in Niepołomice.
Earlier, it was reported that Rheinmetall made a historic delivery for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, transferring the first batch of scarce ammunition created at newly opened production facilities to the front.
We previously informed that Poland signed an agreement with the American company Anduril Industries for the localization of Barracuda cruise missile production.
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