Rheinmetall has received a large-volume order worth around €142 million to provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine.
The order encompasses tens of thousands of complete 155mm artillery shells, including the projectile, fuse (for the explosive charge), propellant and primer (for igniting the propellant).
The customer is a NATO partner nation whose declared intention is to support Ukraine with effective long-term military aid.
The shells will be produced by Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, the Group’s newly acquired Spanish subsidiary. The ammunition will be delivered in 2025. Production and delivery of around 40,000 rounds for Ukraine from an earlier order is already due to take place in 2024.
As recently as mid-October 2023, the German government placed an order with Rheinmetall for over 100,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition earmarked for Ukraine – once again from Rheinmetall Expal Munitions – as well as additional DM 121 high explosive shells. The order is worth a figure in the mid-three-digit million-euro range.
Demand for artillery ammunition is currently very high, due not just to Ukraine’s requirements but also the need to replenish the largely empty ammunition depots of Germany and other NATO and EU countries. Rheinmetall plans a massive increase in ammunition production capacity in 2024 at its plants in Germany, Spain, South Africa and Australia, bringing annual output capacity to around 700,000 artillery rounds.
Rheinmetall currently has multi-year framework contracts to supply the German Bundeswehr with several hundred rounds of artillery ammunition worth over €1 billion.
