Bundeswehr orders around a million smoke grenades from Rheinmetall under framework contract

Rheinmetall has been commissioned by the Bundeswehr to supply around one million DM45 smoke hand grenades, the company announced on 27 May 2024.

Annette Lehnigk-Emden, President of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Information Technology and In- Service Support (BAAINBw), and Rheinmetall Waffe Munition signed a framework agreement for the manufacture and supply of the grenades on 22 May. A total of up to 1.5 million DM45 smoke hand grenades can be procured under the agreement over the coming years. The potential order volume for the approximately one million smoke hand grenades is around EUR 67 million and will be financed from the Bundeswehr’s special fund.

The framework agreement runs until 2027 and allows flexible annual call-off of the ammunition based on the identified requirements of the troops. The DM45s will be produced at Rheinmetall’s Silberhütte site in the Harz Mountains of Saxony Anhalt. The order that has now been placed means that the production facility will be utilised over the longer term.

The smoke hand grenade bears the official designation ‘Granate, Hand, DM45, 800 g, KM (Grenade, Hand, DM45, 800 g, KM)’. It has been in service with the Bundeswehr since the mid-1990s. When its pyrotechnic charge burns, the grenade produces heavy smoke and thus forms a smoke screen. This interrupts the line of sight, making it possible to deceive enemy forces or disguise one’s own movements.

The DM45 smoke grenades fully meet exercise and training requirements as well as being used on actual operations.