An international customer has contracted with Rheinmetall to modernize its 35mm cannon-based air defence systems. The order also includes ammunition and other components for the modernized Skyguard air defence batteries. Work will start in 2023. The contract is worth a figure in the low three-digit million-euro range.

Rheinmetall is upgrading the customer’s 35mm twin guns, bringing them up to the latest Oerlikon GDF009 standard, which will be capable of using AHEAD airburst ammunition. This will enable the country to protect itself and its vital assets from a wide range of aerial threats, including small unmanned aerial systems. Rheinmetall Italia is handling the order.

The contract is of great importance to Rheinmetall. It not only strengthens a strategic customer relationship that has existed for decades, but also underscores the high degree of confidence in Rheinmetall’s world-leading expertise in the field of ground-based air defence.

Rheinmetall is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of advanced air defence systems. In automatic cannon-based air defence, the company is the market leader and the only comprehensive systems supplier of fire control technology, automatic cannons, integrated guided missiles and Ahead airburst ammunition. Air surveillance systems and AESA radar technology, powerful sensor technology and high-energy laser effectors round off its product portfolio.