Spurned by KNDS, Leonardo teams with Rheinmetall for Italy’s new tanks

ROME — Germany’s Rheinmetall has signed a deal with Italy’s Leonardo to discuss the development and building of hundreds of new tanks and tracked fighting vehicles for Italy, weeks after European giant KNDS walked away from a similar deal with Leonardo.

Rheinmetall and Leonardo signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday to create a new 50:50 joint venture which will act as design authority and prime contractor for new platforms, the firms said in a statement.

Rheinmetall will offer its prototype Panther KF51 tank as the baseline for a replacement for Italy’s aging Ariete tanks, and its Lynx tracked fighting vehicle as a baseline for a replacement for Italy’s Dardo vehicles.

On both the tank and tracked fighting vehicle programs, “mission systems, electronics suites and weapons integration will be developed and produced by Leonardo according to the requirements of the Italian client,” the statement said.

“Final assembly lines, homologation testing, delivering activities and the logistic support will be done in Italy with an Italian workshare of 60 percent,” it added.

The team-up will also be used as a springboard to bring Italy into the pan-European Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank program.

“The technologies will be the basis for the development of the future European Main Battle Tank (MGCS),” the statement said.

The deal follows the scrapping last month of a deal between KNDS and Leonardo for Italy to acquire 270 Leopard tanks and to discuss joint work on a new tracked fighting vehicle to meet Italy’s requirement for around 1,000 vehicles.

Italy had forecast the Leopard acquisition programs would be worth €8 billion ($8.6 billion) and the fighting vehicle program worth a total of €15 billion.

Italy’s parliament last year approved the Leopard purchase, which was seen as a fast response to NATO requirements as the Ukraine war puts land warfare back on the map.

KNDS broke off talks after Leonardo sought to add its own systems to the Leopard, with Frank Haun, KNDS CEO, arguing that it would upset the firm’s track record of selling a standardized version of the tank to 18 customers.

KNDS is a consortium of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter.

The new deal with Rheinmetall will instead see the firm discuss with Leonardo an Italianized version of the Panther KF51, which is at an early stage of development and therefore more open to Italian input.

An industry source told Defense News that the scope for integrating Italian systems into the Panther would however slow final procurement.

“The Italian tank program was meant to give the Italian army a tank quickly as a gap filler before the arrival of the MGCS. But if Italy switches to the Panther it could need ten years to conclude the program, and by that time the MGCS might be arriving,” said the source, who declined to be named because he did not have permission to speak on the record.

A second source however predicted the Panther will be a baseline for the MGCS. “So that gives Italy a headstart on MGCS,” said the source, who also declined to be named because he did not have permission to speak on the record.

The discussions with Rheinmetall on adopting its Lynx as the baseline for Italy’s tracked fighting vehicle program will put an end to ongoing studies by Leonardo and its Italian partner Iveco Defense Vehicles to pick a European partner for the program. KNDS and BAE Systems had been other candidates.

Italy’s aim is to produce 20 prototypes of a new tracked fighting vehicle by 2027 or 2028, with deliveries to follow between 2029 and 2041.

Currently Hungary has signed to buy the Lynx and last year became a development partner with Rheinmetall on the Panther.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——德国莱茵金属公司与意大利莱昂纳多公司签署了一项协议，商讨为意大利开发和建造数百辆新型坦克和履带式战车。几周前，欧洲巨头KNDS公司放弃了与莱昂纳多公司达成的类似协议。

莱茵金属公司和莱昂纳多公司周三签署了一份谅解备忘录，将成立一家新的 50:50 合资企业，该合资企业将作为新平台的设计权威和总承包商，两家公司在一份声明中表示。

莱茵金属公司将提供其原型“豹”KF51坦克作为意大利老旧的“阿里埃特”坦克的替代基准，并提供其“山猫”履带式战车作为意大利“达尔多”战车的替代基准。

声明称，在坦克和履带式战车项目中，“任务系统、电子设备和武器集成将由莱昂纳多公司根据意大利客户的要求进行开发和生产”。

声明还补充道：“总装线、认证测试、交付活动和后勤支持将在意大利进行，意大利的工作份额为 60%。”

此次合作还将作为跳板，推动意大利加入泛欧主战坦克系统（MGCS）计划。

声明称：“这些技术将成为未来欧洲主战坦克（MGCS）发展的基础。”

此前，KNDS 与 Leonardo 上个月取消了一项协议，该协议涉及意大利购买 270 辆豹式坦克，并讨论联合研发一种新型履带式战车，以满足意大利约 1000 辆战车的需求。

意大利曾预测豹式坦克采购计划价值 80 亿欧元（86 亿美元），而战斗车辆计划总价值为 150 亿欧元。

意大利议会去年批准了购买豹式坦克，这被视为对北约需求的快速回应，因为乌克兰战争使陆地战争重新成为焦点。

在莱昂纳多公司试图将自己的系统添加到豹式坦克后，KNDS公司中断了谈判。KNDS公司首席执行官弗兰克·豪恩认为，这将破坏该公司向18家客户销售标准化版本坦克的良好记录。

KNDS是由德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司和法国奈克斯特公司组成的财团。

与莱茵金属公司达成的新协议将使该公司与莱昂纳多公司讨论意大利化的Panther KF51坦克版本，该坦克目前处于早期研发阶段，因此更愿意接受意大利方面的投入。

一位业内人士告诉《防务新闻》，将意大利系统集成到“黑豹”坦克中可能会延缓最终的采购进程。

“意大利坦克项目的目的是在MGCS坦克到来之前，迅速为意大利军队提供一种坦克作为过渡装备。但如果意大利转而采购‘黑豹’坦克，那么完成该项目可能需要十年时间，而到那时MGCS坦克可能已经交付了，”这位消息人士说道。他拒绝透露姓名，因为他没有获得公开谈论此事的许可。

然而，另一位消息人士预测，Panther坦克将成为MGCS坦克的基准。“这样一来，意大利在MGCS坦克的研发上就领先一步了，”这位消息人士说道，他也拒绝透露姓名，因为他没有获得公开谈论此事的许可。

与莱茵金属公司就采用其“山猫”（Lynx）战车作为意大利履带式战车项目基准进行的磋商，将终结莱昂纳多公司及其意大利合作伙伴依维柯防务车辆公司正在进行的为该项目选择欧洲合作伙伴的研究。此前，KNDS公司和BAE系统公司也曾是候选公司。

意大利的目标是在 2027 年或 2028 年生产 20 辆新型履带式战车原型车，并在 2029 年至 2041 年间交付。

目前匈牙利已签约购买 Lynx 坦克，并且去年与莱茵金属公司合作开发 Panther 坦克。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。