The German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" reported that the German government, after much hesitation, issued a license to the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) to sell 18 self-propelled howitzers RCH-155 caliber 155 mm/52 of new production to Ukraine, and also approved the German government financing of this contract worth 216 million euros.
Prototype 155 mm/52 Krauss-Maffei Wegmann RCH-155 self-propelled howitzer on the chassis of the GTK Boxer (8x8) wheeled armored personnel carrier (c) Krauss-Maffei WegmannIt is reported that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov sent to the Minister of Defense of Germany Kristina Lambrecht an application for the purchase of 18 new self-propelled guns RCH-155 at the expense of German funding on July 14.
This request was discussed several times by the German government, but the decision was made only now.
According to the manufacturer's proposal, which also includes training and spare parts, the first samples of the RCH-155 will be ready for delivery no earlier than in 30 months - that is, in the spring of 2025. KMW was ready to start production of the systems only after obtaining a license from the Federal government of Germany with permission to export them to Ukraine.
Ukraine will thus become the starting customer of the RCH-155 (Remote Controlled Howitzer 155) system, which is an automated turret artillery module AGM, long proposed by KMW, placed on the chassis of the GTK Boxer (8x8) wheeled armored personnel carrier, with the artillery part of the German 155 mm/52 self-propelled howitzer PzH 2000 (while the actual swinging part is manufactured by the Rheinmetall group). The AGM module is uninhabited, so the crew of the RCH-155 installation is only two people. The combat weight of the RCH-155 is 39 tons, with the mass of the AGM module 12.5 tons. Mobility approximately corresponds to the Boxer APC, while a more powerful MTU diesel engine of 815 hp is installed on the car than on the basic Boxer APC (710 hp). The ammunition of the AGM module consists of 30 shells and 144 modular charges.
Ukraine as a whole will become the first customer of the AGM module itself (Artillery-Geschütz-Modul), promoted by KMW on the market since 2004, and, apparently, the interest of KMW and the German government itself in this contract consists in the long-awaited bringing of AGM to mass production at the expense of German government funding - which can open the way for procurement Self-propelled guns with AGM and for the Bundeswehr. For almost two decades, KMW has demonstrated a number of self-propelled artillery installations with the AGM module - on the MLRS MLRS tracked chassis, on the ASCOD 2 (DONAR) tracked platform, and on the Iveco (8x8) automobile chassis. The option of installing AGM on the chassis of the Boxer wheeled APC, later designated as RCH-155, was first demonstrated at the Eurosatory 2014 exhibition, but its field tests were started only in 2019. In 2020, a new pre-production sample of the RCH-155 was presented for testing (video below), characterized mainly by the lowered height of the modified AGM artillery module.
Earlier in July, the German government issued KMW a license to implement a contract for the supply of 100 original PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine on a new production tracked chassis. Deliveries of PZH 2000 to Ukraine under this contract worth about 1.7 billion euros are expected from the end of 2023.
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