The German government plans to order more than 600 Skyranger 30 short-range air defense systems from Rheinmetall before the end of the year, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Friday, citing defense ministry and industry sources.
The contract for the turret and vehicle, in this case the Boxer wheeled armoured vehicle manufactured jointly with the Franco-German defense company KNDS, is valued at more than nine billion euros ($10 billion), reported Handelsblatt.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius last week said Germany would initiate the procurement of several hundred Skyranger tanks in the coming months. So far, 19 have been ordered, Reuters reported.
Air defense has come into focus in Europe amid mounting concerns that Russia could be behind a growing number of recent drone incursions in the airspace of Ukraine's European allies.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
"I don't want to talk about numbers," said a German defense ministry spokesperson at a regular government news conference in Berlin on Friday when asked about the order for 600 tanks.
A Rheinmetall spokesperson referred questions about the report to the German army but said it was preparing for a significant increase in production due to a high level of interest in Skyranger from several customer countries.
"The current target is at least 200 units per year," said the spokesperson.
Rheinmetall will provide Ukraine with Skyranger 35 systems, which features a 35mm mounted cannon, after receiving a three-digit million-euro order financed by an EU country with proceeds from frozen Russian assets, it said in a
separate statement on Friday.
The German defense giant's Skyranger mobile air defense system is specially developed to defend against low-flying objects.
In the past, Germany had mainly relied on the Gepard anti-aircraft tank for very short-range air defense of up to three kilometres, a weapon that has since become famous in the war in Ukraine. Berlin retired its Gepards in 2010 to save money.
