On Tuesday, January 7, 2024, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published an online interview with the CEO of the German group Rheinmetall AG, Armin Papperger, discussing the progress of the German government’s aid efforts for war-torn Ukraine. He revealed that the announced deliveries of KF41 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles have begun, with the first unit sent to Ukraine for testing.
Hungarian KF41HU Lynx / Reference photo: Rheinmetall AG
Field tests are essential before the start of serial deliveries, announced by the CEO of Rheinmetall AG on October 26, 2024, in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. At that time, it was declared that deliveries would begin before the end of the year. The start of testing was confirmed by a spokesperson for the industrial group on the German defence news portal Hartpunkt.
According to Papperger’s statements in October, the first delivery of Lynx vehicles will consist of nearly ten units. “Ukraine would actually need 3,000 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles, but it does not have the budget for that,” the CEO of Rheinmetall AG stated at the time.
According to the latest information, the first delivery is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, with another delivery twice as large planned for the following year. This would likely mean the transfer of 31 vehicles needed to re-equip a single mechanized battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces (there were also earlier discussions about local production of these vehicles – editor’s note).
So far, the group has supplied, funded by the Berlin government (and others), Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicles, Leopard 1A5 and Leopard 2A4 tanks (from the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands), ammunition for self-propelled anti-aircraft systems Flakpanzer Gepard, Oerlikon Skynex anti-aircraft systems, 155 mm artillery ammunition, field hospitals, and satellite imaging services in collaboration with the Polish-Finnish company ICEYE.
Reference photo: Hungarian Ministry of Defense
In addition, Rheinmetall AG is opening facilities in Ukraine: for the repair of armored vehicles (and production in the longer term) as well as for the production of 155 mm artillery ammunition. Previously, the group had offered Ukraine the production of KF51 Panther tanks and TPz Fuchs 1 wheeled amphibious armored personnel carriers.
So far, Hungary has decided to purchase 218 KF41HU Lynx vehicles. On July 24, 2024, a ceremony was held at the ZALA Zone facility in Zalaegerszeg, Zala County, owned by Rheinmetall’s subsidiary, Rheinmetall Hungary Zrt., to hand over the first locally produced unit to the Hungarian Ministry of Defense. A total of 172 vehicles are to be manufactured locally.
Greece had shown interest in purchasing the KF41 Lynx (ultimately opting to modernize 500 M113 vehicles), and the vehicle is also being offered in Romania and the United States. Meanwhile, in Australia, the German bid lost to South Korea’s Hanwha with the AS21 Redback IFV, and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it lost to Sweden’s BAE Systems Hägglunds with the CV90 MkIV.
Meanwhile, on December 31, 2024, the first KF41 Lynx was delivered to the Italian Army’s CEPOLISPE Testing Center (Centro Polifunzionale di Sperimentazione dell’Esercito) for evaluation. Italy is considering the purchase of up to 1,050 new infantry fighting vehicles, including approximately 650 in the base configuration.
