Germany buys Rheinmetall’s Skyranger to reinstate mobile air defenses

BERLIN — Germany will purchase up to 49 Skyranger 30 air defense systems from Rheinmetall for a total of almost €600 million, or $650 million, the company announced in a press release this week.

The Skyranger 30 weapons stations will be mounted onto the Bundeswehr’s Boxer armored fighting vehicles. In the German setup, the system contains a sensor suite, a 30-millimeter cannon and Stinger surface-to-air missiles. It promises the ability to engage fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft as well as drones and cruise missiles. Additionally, the Bundesweh, Germany’s armed forces, will be able to network it with other air defense assets.

The order contains one prototype and 18 production vehicles, with an option for 30 further vehicles. Rheinmetall said it would deliver the Bundeswehr’s prototype by the end of the year.

The German acquisition, worth €595 million, is part of the military’s project to develop an integrated air defense system for close- and short-range protection. The Skyranger 30 platform is to play an integral role in this endeavor, the manufacturer said in a press release.

Just a month ago, on January 25, a consortium made up of Rheinmetall, Diehl and sensor manufacturer Hensoldt was tasked by the German government to develop this capability for the Bundeswehr for a total of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion).

The contract was “aimed at implementing the necessary solutions for networking individual components, integrating the IRIS T-SLM air defense system, establishing interoperability and extending the interception range to the short range,” Diehl Defense said in a January statement. To this end, the Skyranger 30 system will be able to work both autonomously and in communication with other systems, according to the manufacturer.

Germany has put itself in a leading role on the continent when it comes to air defense thanks to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s European Sky Shield Initiative, announced in August 2022. The initiative now counts 21 countries following the recent announcement that Greece and Turkey intend to join. ESSI was launched in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the heavy use of drones and cruise missiles to damage critical civilian infrastructure in the conflict, which highlighted European vulnerabilities.

With this latest move, Germany hopes to strengthen its position as a “role model for ground-based air defense,” Rheinmetall said. The 2010 retirement of the country’s Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns for cost-cutting purposes left a gap in the German army’s capabilities which this new acquisition is meant to fill.

Just days earlier, the neighboring government in Vienna – another ESSI member – had been the first country to confirm it would acquire the new Skyranger 30 system , which is a quarter lighter than its predecessor, meaning it can be mounted on Austrian army vehicles. Austria will be acquiring 36 Skyrangers for their Pandur EVO armored vehicles for a total of €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion).

Rheinmetall said the company expected more orders to follow. Hungary tasked the German manufacturer with integrating the Skyranger system with its Lynx KF41 vehicles in December of last year, while Lithuania and Denmark are considering acquisitions of their own, according to the company.

Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, the original version of this story misreported the value of the Skyranger contract. It is roughly €600 million.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——莱茵金属公司本周在一份新闻稿中宣布，德国将从该公司购买多达 49 套 Skyranger 30 防空系统，总价近 6 亿欧元，约合 6.5 亿美元。

“天际游侠30”武器站将安装在德国联邦国防军的“拳击手”装甲战车上。在德国的配置中，该系统包含一套传感器套件、一门30毫米机炮和“毒刺”地对空导弹。它能够拦截固定翼飞机、旋翼飞机、无人机和巡航导弹。此外，德国联邦国防军还可以将其与其他防空系统联网。

该订单包括一辆原型车和18辆量产车，并可选择增购30辆。莱茵金属公司表示，将于年底前交付德国联邦国防军的原型车。

德国此次价值5.95亿欧元的采购是其军方开发近程和短程综合防空系统项目的一部分。制造商在一份新闻稿中表示，Skyranger 30平台将在这一项目中发挥至关重要的作用。

就在一个月前，1 月 25 日，由莱茵金属公司、迪尔公司和传感器制造商亨索尔特公司组成的财团受德国政府委托，为德国联邦国防军开发这项能力，总金额为 12 亿欧元（13 亿美元）。

迪尔防务公司在1月份的一份声明中表示，该合同“旨在实施必要的解决方案，以实现各个组件的联网，集成IRIS T-SLM防空系统，建立互操作性，并将拦截范围扩展到近程”。据制造商称，为此，Skyranger 30系统将能够独立运行，并与其他系统进行通信。

德国凭借总理奥拉夫·朔尔茨于2022年8月宣布的“欧洲天空之盾”倡议，在欧洲大陆的防空领域占据了领先地位。随着希腊和土耳其近期宣布有意加入，该倡议目前已拥有21个成员国。欧洲天空之盾倡议的启动，是为了应对俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以及在冲突中大量使用无人机和巡航导弹破坏关键民用基础设施的行为，这些行为凸显了欧洲的防空能力不足。

莱茵金属公司表示，德国希望通过此次最新举措，巩固其作为“地面防空典范”的地位。2010年，德国出于削减成本的目的退役了“猎豹”自行高射炮，这在德国陆军的防空能力方面留下了空白，而此次新采购正是为了填补这一空白。

就在几天前，维也纳的邻国政府——也是欧洲安全战略倡议（ESSI）成员国——率先确认将采购新型Skyranger 30系统。该系统比其前代产品轻了四分之一，这意味着它可以安装在奥地利陆军车辆上。奥地利将斥资18亿欧元（约合19.5亿美元）为其Pandur EVO装甲车采购36套Skyranger系统。

莱茵金属公司表示，预计后续订单将陆续到来。据该公司透露，匈牙利已于去年12月委托这家德国制造商将Skyranger系统集成到其Lynx KF41装甲车上，而立陶宛和丹麦也在考虑采购该系统。

编者按：由于编辑错误，本文原版本错误报道了“天行者”无人机项目合同的价值。实际价值约为6亿欧元。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。