On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the German RENK Group announced that it had received a major order worth approximately 157 million EUR from an international NATO customer for the delivery of HSWL 295 automatic transmissions for heavy military vehicles. The transmissions will be manufactured in Augsburg.
Photo: RENK
Umowa obejmuje rzeczone przekładnie w nieujawnionej liczbie wraz z kompleksowym pakietem szkoleń i części zamiennych. Dostawy mają rozpocząć się w trzecim kwartale 2026 i trwać do 2033.
“The HSWL 295 is a proven and precise solution for modern combat vehicles that is reliable under extreme conditions,” said Michael Masur, CEO Vehicle Mobility Solutions at RENK Group AG. “The underlying battle tank program also gives us access to other international markets and underscores the growing importance of our business in the NATO environment.”
The HSWL 295 transmissions are designed for use in modern heavy combat vehicles and are characterized by high power density, a compact design, and robust operational capability.
The project is part of a long-term public procurement program. It will help strengthen the order backlog in the Vehicle Mobility Solutions segment over the long term and represents an investment in RENK Group’s strategic focus on significantly increasing the share of defense-related business in its total revenue by 2030.
Transmissions for Polish K2 tanks?
The RENK HSWL 295 TM automatic transmission measures 1800 mm × 774 mm × 840 mm and weighs 2,450 kg (without oil). It is designed for tanks with a combat weight of 50 to 70 tons, powered by diesel engines with a maximum output of 1,600 hp in a U-shaped power pack configuration. It features five forward and five reverse gears, as well as an integrated braking system. It is paired, among others, with German MTU MT883 Ka-500/501 engines as part of the EuroPowerPack. In this configuration, it is used in K2 tanks (first production batch), export versions of the Leclerc (tropicalisé) and Challenger 2E, as well as the Altay and Merkava Mk4 (RENK plans to invest in Poland).
The recipient of the transmissions could be Poland or Turkey. After completing the delivery of 180 K2GF tanks to the Polish Armed Forces, on August 1 the Ministry of National Defense ordered another 180 vehicles, including 116 K2GF and 64 K2PL, as well as 81 support vehicles based on the tank chassis. Although South Korea has approved the integration of the HD Hyundai Doosan Infracore DV27K diesel engine and the SNT Dynamics EST15K transmission with new K2 tanks, the K2GF variant from the second batch for Poland will also receive German transmissions, similar to those from the first contract.
In fact, a contract for this was signed on October 22, 2025, worth over 70 million EUR. It remains unclear whether the contract announced yesterday supplements the October agreement or concerns a different customer.