New armor for the fox

The Düsseldorf-based technology company Rheinmetall has won an important follow-up order from the Bundeswehr.

Rheinmetall has now been tasked with modernizing and significantly upgrading 90 well-proven Fuchs armored transport vehicles of the Bundeswehr. The volume of this contract amounts to around 135 million euros (including VAT). It was recently awarded by the Koblenz Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr (BAAINBw), after the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag had recently released the funds for it. The delivery of the vehicles will begin in 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2020.

In recent years, Rheinmetall has already upgraded 177 Fuchs vehicles of the Bundeswehr to the current standard 1A8.

In service with the Bundeswehr since the 1970s and manufactured around 1200 times, the TPz Fuchs with its high reliability and mobility has long been one of the most proven and versatile vehicles of the armed forces. Currently, it is used in missions such as MINUSMA (Mali), Resolute Support (Afghanistan), and KFOR (Kosovo).

Enhanced protection for crew and better technical equipment

The 1A8 version provides significantly improved protection against mines and improvised explosive devices compared to older models, while at the same time increasing the ballistic protection of the vehicles.

The modernization now commissioned significantly expands the operational spectrum of all those Fuchs vehicles that are indispensable for foreseeable military missions of the Bundeswehr in a variety of variants. For the crews of vehicle variants that could not be modernized previously, the level of protection and technical equipment are significantly improved.

With this contract, Rheinmetall once again underscores its role as a key supplier to the army and a leading provider of a comprehensive range of military vehicles for the Bundeswehr and the armed forces of international client countries.

Currently, the Bundeswehr has 1A8 vehicles, among others, in the variants of command, group transport, medical, and combat engineer vehicles, as well as NBC reconnaissance and operator vehicle RCP (Route Clearing Package for clearing mines and IEDs).