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Germany’s Federal Office for Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-service Support, or BAAINBw, has placed an order with Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV) for a further 1,401 military trucks with a gross total value of €543 million. The trucks come under the Bundeswehr rubric of Unprotected Transport Vehicles, or UTFs. Funding for the extra procurement of a thousand of these vehicles comes from the German federal government’s pandemic recovery package. Delivery is scheduled to take place in 2021 and 2022. A framework contract for the procurement of modern military trucks signed in July 2017, which originally envisaged the purchase of 2,271 vehicles, has now been augmented to enable procurement of a further 1,000 trucks, bringing the current total to 3,271 UTFs.

A current call-off from the original framework contract comprises a total of 292 5-tonne trucks and 109 15-tonne trucks. Including related services, the 401 vehicles in this call-off come to €154 million, including value added tax. Delivery is to be complete by the end of 2021. Furthermore, another 1,000 trucks – including 150 5-tonne vehicles and 850 15-tonne models – are to be purchased in 2021 and 2022. They represent sales of €389 million, including VAT. Funding will come from the German government’s economic recovery package, with delivery to be complete by the end of 2022.

Dedicated to the twin modern imperatives of security and mobility, the Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Group is thus playing a significant role in modernizing the Bundeswehr’s fleet of logistic vehicles, which numbers thousands of trucks. Most of the principal components – including the engines, axles, transmissions and build-ons – are made in Germany; assembly of the vehicles takes place at the RMMV plant in Vienna.

Particularly when it comes to multinational operations, the wide use of RMMV vehicles offers major advantages when it comes to interoperability and logistics. Among others, the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark all rely today on trucks from Rheinmetall. Norway and Sweden have each placed substantial truck orders with RMMV as well.