Leonardo DRS, Rheinmetall from JV to bid for Italy’s armored vehicles program

Leonardo (DRS) and Rheinmetall (RNMBY) announced Wednesday they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a new 50:50 joint venture aimed at developing a European industrial and technological approach in the field of land defense systems. The objective of the agreement is the industrial development and subsequent commercialization of the new Main Battle Tank and the new Lynx Platform for the Armoured Infantry Combat System, within the Italian Army’s ground systems programs. In particular, the future joint venture – headquartered in Italy – will be the Lead System Integrator, prime-contractor and system integrator, in both the Italian programs and will define the roadmap for the participation in the future European Main Ground Combat System. Within the MBT and AICS programs, mission systems, electronics suites and weapons integration will be developed and produced by Leonardo according to the requirements of the Italian client. The technologies will also be the basis for the development of the future European MBT and the new versions intended for international export. With the newly developed Panther main battle tank and the new Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, Rheinmetall has the appropriate basic technology on which to build in both programmes. Final assembly lines, homologation testing, delivering activities and the logistic support will be done in Italy with an Italian workshare of 60%.