Rheinmetall secures order for more than a hundred PzH 2000 L52 gun barrels

Rheinmetall has been commissioned to supply more than a hundred L52 gun barrels for the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) self-propelled howitzer (SPH), the company announced on 27 May 2024.

The gun barrels, which will be delivered in the period 2024-2029, are for an undisclosed European customer. Only the German Army operates more than 100 PzH 2000s, but the other European operators of the SPH are Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

The delivery is part of a massive growth programme in barrel and weapon production that Rheinmetall is currently implementing in order to meet increased demand in the future.

“This new order once again underlines Rheinmetall’s leading technological position in the field of gun barrels in Europe,” the company noted in a press release.

The PzH 2000 SPH was developed in the 1980s and 1990s but has been continuously modernised since then. It can achieve a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute and, depending on the ammunition and propellant used, a range of 30-40 km with conventional ammunition and 67 km with range-enhanced ammunition.