Italy gets first Lynx fighting vehicles, due to reshape the army

MONTELIBRETTI, Italy — The Italian army has taken delivery of four Lynx fighting vehicles from Rheinmetall, the first batch in a massive, planned order of 1,050 vehicles.

The four tracked vehicles were unveiled at the army’s Montelibretti test range outside Rome in front of an audience including Italy’s defense chief and defense minister as well as managers from Rheinmetall and Italy’s Leonardo, which is teaming with the German firm on the program.

“This is a strategic signal,” said Björn Bernhard, Rheinmetall’s European vehicles head.

“Europe remains fragmented with too many systems, too many supply chains, too little industrial depth. It is unsustainable, it is simply dangerous,” he said in a speech.

The Lynx program “is delivering what Europe urgently needs. Industrial integration instead of national stand alone approaches,” he added, claiming, “Europe is becoming more resilient.”

The delivery of the vehicles follows the signing last week of a defense cooperation deal between Italy and Germany through which the two countries will aim to “reduce fragmentation, foster standardization and interchangeability, increase interoperability between their forces and strengthen the European defense industry.”

The first four vehicles will soon be joined by a fifth, all with a Rheinmetall-supplied turret, while a subsequent 16 Lynx’s, to be delivered between October and the start of 2027, will have a Leonardo-built Hitfist 30mm turret.

The integration of the Italians turrets with Rheinmetall Lynx chassis’ will “most probably” happen at Leonardo’s facility at La Spezia in Italy, or at Iveco Defence Vehicles, the Italian firm Leonardo purchased last year , said Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani.

The first five vehicles will meanwhile also be retrofitted with the Hitfist turret.

Luca Perazzo, Leonardo’s deputy managing director of defense systems, said the Italian Army has an option to acquire another 30 vehicles in the same configuration, which it is expected to exercise in the first half of this year.

The Lynx deal follows the creation in 2024 of joint venture Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles.

Perazzo said that a full, final contract would follow covering five further variants of the Lynx which would carry out 16 different roles. Prototypes of those variants would delivered between 2027 and 2028 before serial production got underway.

“For the first time all the capabilities of an armored brigade will be brought together on one technological backbone,” said Rheinmetall’s Bernhard.

The Italian army also envisages Rheinmetall and Leonardo producing 272 variants of Rheinmetall’s Panther tanks, taking the entire deal to 23 billion euros ($27.5 billion).

Cingolani said the first Panther prototypes were due to be delivered between the end of 2029 and the start of 2030.

Both the Lynx and Panther programs are now qualified for inclusion in the European Union’s SAFE plan, meaning that countries applying for SAFE defense spending loans from the EU can spend the money on the two vehicles, Perazzo told Defense News.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

意大利蒙泰利布雷蒂——意大利陆军已从莱茵金属公司接收了四辆“山猫”战车，这是计划订购的1050辆战车中的第一批。

这四辆履带式车辆在罗马郊外的陆军蒙特利布雷蒂试验场亮相，出席的观众包括意大利国防部长、国防部长以及莱茵金属公司和意大利莱昂纳多公司的管理人员，后者正在与这家德国公司合作开展该项目。

“这是一个战略信号，”莱茵金属欧洲车辆负责人比约恩·伯恩哈德说。

他在一次演讲中表示：“欧洲仍然四分五裂，体系太多，供应链太多，产业深度却太薄弱。这种情况不可持续，而且非常危险。”

“Lynx计划正在提供欧洲迫切需要的东西。它强调产业一体化，而不是各国各自为政的做法，”他补充道，并声称“欧洲正在变得更具韧性”。

此次车辆交付之前，意大利和德国上周签署了一项国防合作协议，根据该协议，两国将致力于“减少碎片化，促进标准化和互换性，提高两国军队之间的互操作性，并加强欧洲国防工业”。

首批四辆车辆很快将迎来第五辆，它们都将配备莱茵金属公司提供的炮塔；而随后交付的 16 辆“山猫”装甲车（将于 2027 年 10 月至 2027 年初之间交付）将配备莱昂纳多公司制造的 Hitfist 30 毫米炮塔。

莱昂纳多首席执行官罗伯托·辛戈拉尼表示，意大利炮塔与莱茵金属“山猫”底盘的整合“很可能”会在莱昂纳多位于意大利拉斯佩齐亚的工厂进行，或者在莱昂纳多去年收购的意大利公司依维柯防务车辆公司进行。

与此同时，前五辆车辆也将改装“重击者”炮塔。

莱昂纳多公司国防系统副总经理卢卡·佩拉佐表示，意大利陆军可以选择再采购 30 辆相同配置的车辆，预计将在今年上半年行使该权利。

Lynx 交易是在 2024 年成立合资企业 Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles 之后进行的。

佩拉佐表示，随后将签订一份完整的最终合同，涵盖Lynx无人机的另外五个衍生型号，这些型号将执行16种不同的任务。这些衍生型号的原型机将于2027年至2028年间交付，之后才会开始批量生产。

莱茵金属公司的伯恩哈德表示：“装甲旅的所有能力将首次集中到一个技术主干上。”

意大利军方还设想莱茵金属公司和莱昂纳多公司生产 272 辆莱茵金属公司“黑豹”坦克的各种型号，使整个交易总额达到 230 亿欧元（275 亿美元）。

Cingolani表示，首批Panther原型车预计将于2029年底至2030年初交付。

佩拉佐告诉《防务新闻》，“山猫”和“黑豹”项目现在都符合纳入欧盟“安全援助计划”（SAFE计划）的条件，这意味着向欧盟申请SAFE国防开支贷款的国家可以将这笔钱用于购买这两种车辆。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。