Germany’s Bundeswehr has contracted with Rheinmetall to produce and supply medium-calibre ammunition for the Puma infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), the company announced on 17 January 2024.
A call-off from an existing framework agreement, the order encompasses several hundred thousand rounds of 30mm x 173 DM21 service ammunition and is worth over EUR 350 million, including value added tax, according to Rheinmetall. Once perfect functionality has been demonstrated, deliveries will begin this year and continue through to 2027.
On 30 November 2022 the budget committee of the German Parliament approved a bill for the large-scale procurement of 30 mm medium-calibre ammunition. Awarded back in December 2022, the framework contract for the supply of medium-calibre ammunition for the Puma IFV is worth up to EUR 576 million. Follow-up call-offs are therefore expected. A first call-off of DM21 automatic cannon ammunition under the existing framework contract was already issued in late 2022. A further call-off followed in mid-2023.
The Puma IFV is armed with a Rheinmetall MK30-2/ABM 30 mm cannon, which is specifically designed to fire airburst ammunition. Combining a high rate of fire with cutting-edge ammunition technology, the MK30-2/ABM is an “uncompromisingly excellent, extremely reliable weapon system, perfect for engaging ground, air and maritime targets” according to Rheinmetall.
A vital supplier of ammunition for the Bundeswehr’s Puma fleet, Rheinmetall produces and supplies two main types of 30 mm x 173 ammunition, the KETF DM21 (airburst) and KE DM33 (armour-piercing) rounds, as well as the DM58 practice round. Developed and qualified in line with the latest standards, the rounds are claimed by Rheinmetall to be “unrivalled worldwide in terms of reliability, lethality, penetrating power and precision”.
Extremely reliable programming of the KETF DM21 (the abbreviation stands for Kinetic Energy Time Fuse) enables the Puma to engage larger soft targets and semi-hard area targets. The KE DM33, meanwhile, belongs to the new generation of subcalibre armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot – tracer (APFSDS-T) ammunition.
“Its penetrator punches through modern armour even at remarkably small angles of impact and at long engagement ranges,” Rheinmetall claimed.
Used in conjunction with each other, these two types of ammunition allow the the Puma to successfully take on a wide spectrum of armoured, semi-hard and soft point or area targets.
