Preparations for the construction of a new ammunition production plant in Ukraine are being completed, and the groundbreaking ceremony will take place soon.
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Armin Papperger, Chairman of the Board of the German concern Rheinmetall, announced this on March 14 at a press conference on the results of 2023. According to him, the first shells could come off the assembly line in Ukraine in 15 months.
We are talking about a joint German-Ukrainian enterprise. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Rheinmetall plans to annually produce in Ukraine a six-digit quantity of NATO 155 mm artillery shells, which Kyiv can only import for now.
Rheinmetall intends to build a similar factory in Lithuania, Papperger said. In Germany itself, in Lower Saxony, the concern launched the construction of a new plant in February, also for the production of shells. The first production is expected in the spring of 2025. Rheinmetall is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of artillery systems and projectiles.
The shell plant in Ukraine will not be created from scratch. “We use existing infrastructure so we don’t have to spend a lot of time constructing buildings,” Papperger said in response to a question from DW. “Ukraine doesn’t have time, they are at war, they need it quickly.”
At the same time, answering questions from journalists, Papperger admitted that the construction of a new shell plant in Germany could have been completed a year earlier, but at the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Rheinmetall did not receive large orders from the German government that would justify an investment of 300 million euros.
According to him, the situation has changed, and Berlin plans to order more than two million artillery shells. Rheinmetall is now supplying Ukraine with “hundreds of thousands” of shells of various calibers, Papperger said. According to him, this is almost all of his products in the sphere of projectile production in the world, with the exception of the plant in South Africa, whose authorities do not give permission for delivery to Ukraine.
Papperger estimated the order book for Western aid to Ukraine at two to three billion euros per year. For comparison, the turnover of the Düsseldorf concern in 2023 amounted to more than seven billion euros. In 2024, he plans to exceed the 10 billion mark.
In addition to shells, Rheinmetall supplies its other products to Ukraine. The head of the concern announced the transfer of more than 200 armored vehicles, including Leopard tanks. A Rheinmetall repair plant already operates in Ukraine for German armored vehicles transferred to Kyiv. Earlier, plans were announced to build a plant for the production of military equipment – armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles should be the first, but when this will happen is an open question.
Ukraine’s needs are enormous, Papperger told DW. — The limiting factor is money.
According to him, usually such a plant could produce up to 400 tracked armored vehicles per year, but there is a significant lack of financial resources.
The head of Rheinmetall also said that there is still no permission from the German government for the production of main battle tanks in Ukraine. According to him, a decision was made to start with the production of light and medium armored vehicles, and then move on to heavy ones.
In the future, Rheinmetall also intends to establish production of its air defense systems in Ukraine. Currently, several samples of modern Skynex and Skyranger systems have been transferred to Kyiv.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.