Rheinmetall has booked a third call-off for artillery ammunition under a framework agreement with the German Bundeswehr, the company announced on 10 October 2023.
The order, which follows a second call-off announced on 6 October, relates to the delivery of over 100,000 155 mm shells from the group’s new Spanish subsidiary, Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, as well as additional DM121 high-explosive rounds. Although the customer is the German government, all the ammunition is earmarked for Ukraine.
Rheinmetall has stated that the order is valued in the mid-three-digit-million-euro range. Tens of thousands of rounds from the order are to be delivered in 2023, with the remainder due to ship in 2024.
Rheinmetall secured a framework agreement with the German government to supply ammunition of all types back in 2017, but in July 2023 the company announced the signing of a new framework agreement for artillery ammunition with the Bundeswehr and the expansion of its existing agreement. The contracts encompass the delivery of several hundred thousand shells, fuzes and propelling charges.
The recently concluded framework agreement for 155 mm artillery ammunition runs until 2029 and represents a gross potential order value of around EUR 1.2 Bn. The first orders of service and practice ammunition came directly after the contract was signed.
The war in Ukraine has compelled the armed forces of numerous nations to replenish their ammunition stocks. In this context Rheinmetall has already booked several large orders for artillery ammunition.
Rheinmetall’s family of artillery ammunition includes the high-explosive DM121 shell, the DM125 smoke/obscurant projectile and (jointly developed with Diehl) the DM702 SMArt sensor-fuzed munition, plus the RH68 practice round and the range-optimised RH1901 and RH1902 smoke/obscurant projectiles. The group’s portfolio also includes the versatile 155 mm Assegai family from Rheinmetall Denel Munition, which encompasses insensitive ammunition and conventional high-explosive shells as well as smoke/obscurant, illumination, infrared illumination and other projectiles.
