Qualification of new tank ammunition

In a joint effort by Germany and the United Kingdom, the Procurement Office of the Bundeswehr successfully completed negotiations with Rheinmetall Weapon Munition (RWM) in September 2024 to enable the delivery of qualification samples of new ammunition.

For both countries, this marks a significant milestone in mutual interoperability, aiming to strengthen an already long-standing cooperation on an equal footing and to qualify the next generation of 120mm kinetic energy (KE) tank ammunition. The qualification now commissioned aims to demonstrate the potential use of the new ammunition by Germany in the Leopard 2 battle tank and by the United Kingdom in the Challenger 3 battle tank.

The Bundeswehr expects the delivery of initial qualification samples from the industry in the coming weeks.

As part of the upcoming test campaigns, it will be assessed whether the new 120mm KE ammunition can be safely fired and handled by soldiers and is suitable for use in both battle tanks. The use of innovative technologies aims to enable the defeat of the latest generic protection technologies.

GERMAN ARMED FORCES online