The German Ministry of Defense announced that on January 13, 2025, at the headquarters of the German-French KNDS association in Kassel, Defense Minister Pistorius took delivery of the first 155 mm/52 serial self-propelled howitzer RCH 155 on a wheeled chassis and handed it over to Ukraine in the person of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Alexei Makeev.
The first 155mm/52 serial self-propelled howitzer RCH 155 on a wheeled chassis handed over to Ukraine at a ceremony at the headquarters of the German-French KNDS association in Kassel, 01/13/2025 (c) DPA
In total, the German branch of KNDS (KNDS Deutschland, formerly Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, KMW) is to supply 54 RCH 155 wheeled howitzers to Ukraine from its plant in Kassel under contracts fully funded by the German government as part of military assistance. The contract for the supply of the first 18 RCH 155 self-propelled guns to Ukraine worth 216 million euros was signed in September 2022, and in 2023 contracts for the supply of 36 more RCH 155 self-propelled guns followed. The total value of all three contracts is 890 million euros. The first six systems are to be transferred to Ukraine in 2025, while the rest will be delivered in 2026-2027.
It is reported that the first transferred self-propelled guns will be used to train Ukrainian personnel in Germany, and the actual transfer of combat systems to Ukraine will begin in April.
Ukraine thereby became the starting customer and recipient of the RCH 155 self-propelled howitzer (Remote Controlled Howitzer 155), which is an automated turret artillery module AGM (Artillery-Geschütz-Modul) with a German 155-mm artillery piece mounted on the chassis of a GTK Boxer (8x8) wheeled armored personnel carrier./52 self-propelled howitzers 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, while the mass of the AGM module is 12.5 tons. Mobility roughly corresponds to the Boxer APC, while the vehicle has a more powerful MTU 8V 199TE20/21 diesel engine with 815 hp than the basic Boxer APC (710 hp). The AGM module has 30 rounds and 144 modular charges, and a rate of fire of up to 9 rounds per minute. It is claimed that the RCH 155 is the world's first self-propelled gun with the ability to conduct effective fire in motion.
Ukraine as a whole became the first customer of the AGM module itself, promoted by KMW on the market since 2004, and, apparently, the interest of KNDS and the German government itself in these contracts consisted in the long-awaited bringing of the AGM and the RCH 155 itself to mass production due to German government financing, Which opened the way for the purchase of ACS with AGM and for the Bundeswehr. It is assumed that the German army, under the Zukünftiges System Indirektes Feuer mittlere Reichweite (ZukSysIndF mRw) program, will purchase from 120 to 168 RCH 155 systems starting in 2026. In April 2024, it was announced that the first contract for the Bundeswehr should be concluded for 80 self-propelled guns.
For almost two decades, KMW has demonstrated a range of self-propelled artillery units with the AGM module - on the MLRS tracked MLRS chassis, on the ASCOD 2 (DONAR) tracked platform, and on the Iveco (8x8) automotive chassis. The option of installing the AGM on the chassis of a Boxer wheeled APC, later designated as the RCH 155, was first demonstrated at the Eurosatory 2014 exhibition, but its field tests were not started until 2019. In 2020, a new pre-production RCH 155 was presented for testing, characterized mainly by the lowered height of the modified AGM artillery module.
In April 2024, the British Ministry of Defense announced its decision to purchase the RCH 155 self-propelled guns for the British Army, with the intention of purchasing 116 units by 2030, as part of a joint procurement program with Germany. In September 2024, it was reported that Germany had approved the sale of 12 RCH 155 self-propelled guns to Qatar in exchange for 12 PzH 2000 self-propelled tracked howitzers, which would be purchased from Qatar and transferred to Ukraine. In September 2024, the Italian government appealed to Parliament with a request to approve a multi-year program for the purchase of an unnamed number of RCH 155 self-propelled guns for the Italian army. Taking into account the cost of purchasing several types of ammunition, as well as auxiliary and transport vehicles, Italy plans to allocate 1.81 billion euros for this program. In November 2024, the Swiss federal armaments agency Armasuisse announced a decision following a tender to purchase for the Swiss army an RCH 155 self-propelled gun version with a gun module mounted on a Mowag Piranha IV (10×10) wheeled armored chassis.
In addition to the contracts for the supply of RCH 155 to Ukraine, KNDS Deutschland also has contracts issued by the German government in 2024 for the supply of 18 self-propelled howitzers PzH 2000 on a tracked chassis of a new production (from mid-2027), and 12 more self-propelled howitzers PzH 2000, purchased from Qatar, with their repair. The cost of the contract for the purchase and repair of 12 PzH 2000 from Qatar amounted to 150 million euros, and their deliveries to Ukraine were supposed to be made at the end of 2024 (the first six) and in 2025 (six more), but have not yet begun. Earlier, by the end of 2024, Ukraine had already received 36 self-propelled guns PzH 2000, of which 25 were transferred from Germany, eight more from the Netherlands, and three from Italy.
The first 155 mm/52 serial self-propelled howitzer RCH 155 on a wheeled chassis handed over to Ukraine at a ceremony at the headquarters of the German-French KNDS association in Kassel, 01/13/2025 (c) DPA and Bundeswehr
