The new Rheinmetall plant has already produced the first Lynx infantry fighting vehicle 4 months after its opening
However, the newest infantry fighting vehicle Lynx will not enter the service of the Armed Forces until the summer of 2024
The first Lynx infantry fighting vehicle was manufactured at Rheinmetall in Hungary, as officially announced by the company. This first infantry fighting vehicle has already left the workshop of the new plant in Zalaegerseg, which was officially opened only in August 2013.
That is, it took a fairly short period of four months to manufacture the first machine on a localized basis, when some components, assemblies and units are delivered to the end user ready for installation. At the same time, in the case of the Hungarian Rheinmetall plant, in January, a plan was announced that this plant would be responsible for Lynx towers at the initial production stage.
In any case, the delivery of the first infantry fighting vehicle, the final assembly of which was carried out at the new enterprise, is a rather important milestone. But it should also be added that it took much longer than four months to get there. Hungary signed the contract for the creation of the plant and localization of Lynx in September 2020. It cost about 2 billion euros and provides for 219 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles, 173 of which are to be produced on a localization basis.
However, the first Lynx finally assembled in Hungary will not immediately strengthen the army, as it will be tested until mid-2024 to prove not only the declared tactical and technical characteristics, but also the quality of production.
While this process is underway, the production of new infantry fighting vehicles will continue, and the Hungarian army will receive Lynx, which are to be produced in the amount of up to 46 units directly in Germany. The first delivery of the “German” Lynx took place in October 2022.
At the same time, it is already known that Rheinmetall’s facilities in Hungary will be scaled up, and the company recently announced the signing of a contract to bring the new Panther KF51 EVO main battle tank to the production stage. For 288 million euros, a demonstration car is to be built, which will allow us to get closer to the start of its mass production.
The Panther KF51 EVO will have a 120mm L55A1 gun with automatic loading, and as for the chassis, Rheinmetall seems to have found a legal loophole and will use the BREM Buffalo chassis, which is based on the Leopard 2 chassis, instead of the Leopard 2 chassis. But most likely, it is Rheinmetall that has the legal rights to the production of BREM, while the original chassis belongs to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
