Rheinmetall M256 120mm smoothbore cannon from an M1A2 Abrams tank, Ādaži, Latvia, 22 August 2016. 24th Theater Public Affairs Support Element / DVIDS. VIRIN: 160822-A-AE054-552. Public domain.

Rheinmetall AG: Twenty Years of Acquisitions, Joint Ventures, and Divestitures That Forged NATO’s Pre-eminent Land Systems and Ammunition Prime

Technical Summary

Between 2004 and 2026, Rheinmetall Aktiengesellschaft (AG) executed one of the most consequential corporate transformations in the European defence industry. Starting the period as a dual-use conglomerate, with roughly equal revenue contributions from its Defence and Automotive divisions, the Düsseldorf-based company methodically divested its civilian manufacturing assets while acquiring a succession of weapons, ordnance, munitions and explosives (WOME) producers and land systems integrators across Europe, North America, and South Africa. By the close of 2024, Rheinmetall reported annual group revenue of €9.75 billion, a 36 percent increase year-on-year, with an order backlog of approximately €55 billion. The Defence segment accounted for more than 80 percent of group revenue: an almost complete inversion of the 2004 revenue structure.

From a WOME supply chain perspective, the significance of Rheinmetall’s expansion is considerable. The 2023 acquisition of Expal Systems, the Spanish ammunition manufacturer, added production capacity for large-calibre artillery ammunition that, by publicly reported industry estimates, exceeded the combined domestic 155mm throughput of the United Kingdom and Germany at the time of completion. The 2008 establishment of Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (RDM), a joint venture with South African state-owned defence company Denel, added medium-calibre and further large-calibre production capability in a non-NATO geographic footprint. Together, these acquisitions position Rheinmetall as NATO’s single largest non-US producer of artillery and medium-calibre ammunition, a role with significant implications for NATO resupply timelines and the alliance’s ability to sustain high-intensity land operations.

Rheinmetall’s acquisition of Expal Systems alone added production capacity for large-calibre 155mm artillery ammunition that, by reported industry estimates, exceeded the combined domestic throughput of the United Kingdom and Germany at the time of completion, reshaping NATO’s munitions supply chain in a single transaction. ISC Defence Intelligence Analysis

The Ammunition Production Base: Expal Systems and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions

The most significant single acquisition in Rheinmetall’s WOME expansion was the purchase of Expal Systems, completed 1 August 2023 for a reported consideration of approximately €1.2 billion. Expal, headquartered in Madrid with its principal production facility at Molina de Segura (Murcia) and further manufacturing sites in Spain, covered 155mm L/52 artillery ammunition, 105mm light artillery natures, 81mm mortar rounds, and a range of pyrotechnic and demolition products. Expal’s production lines held Allied Quality Assurance Publication (AQAP) certification, and its products were qualified against multiple NATO Standardisation Agreement (STANAG) natures prior to acquisition. The deal transferred not only production capacity but also a trained workforce, qualified production lines, and an established customer base across NATO member states.

Earlier, in September 2008, Rheinmetall established Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (RDM) as a joint venture, with Rheinmetall holding 51 percent and South Africa’s Denel holding the remaining 49 percent. Headquartered in Potchefstroom, RDM produces 155mm ERFB-BB rounds, medium-calibre 20mm and 30mm rounds for Rheinmetall’s cannon family, and propellant charge natures. The South African location provides production capacity outside the NATO geographic footprint, relevant to export supply to non-NATO partner nations and to qualification paths that differ from European explosives regulatory regimes.

Land Systems Integration: RBSL, Automecanica Mediaş, and Loc Performance

In the land systems domain, the most structurally significant joint venture was the establishment of Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) in July 2019, with Rheinmetall holding 55 percent and BAE Systems retaining 45 percent. RBSL, headquartered in Telford, Shropshire, serves as the primary vehicle for Rheinmetall’s participation in British Army programmes: the Challenger 2 Life Extension Programme (LEP) and the Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) programme. RBSL’s facilities provide armoured vehicle overhaul, upgrade, and through-life support in the United Kingdom, reducing strategic dependency on continental European supply chains for the British Army’s tracked fleet.

On 1 February 2024, Rheinmetall completed the acquisition of a 72.5 percent controlling stake in Automecanica Mediaş, a Romanian military vehicle manufacturer based in Transylvania. Automecanica produces MAN military trucks under licence and Romanian-designed wheeled military vehicles, positioning Rheinmetall within Romania’s growing defence industrial base at a time of heightened Eastern flank activity. In August 2024, Rheinmetall agreed to acquire Loc Performance Products, a US-based tracked vehicle component manufacturer headquartered in Michigan, at a reported enterprise value of approximately 950 million US dollars. The transaction completed on 29 November 2024, with the company subsequently integrated into Rheinmetall's US operations as American Rheinmetall Vehicles, headquartered in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Loc Performance manufactures track assemblies, suspension components, and drivetrain parts for the M113 armoured personnel carrier (APC), Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), and Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV). The acquisition provides Rheinmetall with a manufacturing presence in the United States, qualifying it for US Army contracts subject to domestic-content requirements and laying the groundwork for Lynx IFV production under the US Army Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) competition.

The Naval Expansion: NVL Group Acquisition

In September 2025, Rheinmetall announced agreement to acquire the NVL Group, a German naval shipbuilding and repair conglomerate. The transaction completed on 1 March 2026. NVL comprised four German shipyards: Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, with heritage in warship construction dating to the nineteenth century; Peene-Werft in Wolgast; Norderwerft in Hamburg; and Neue Jadewerft in Wilhelmshaven. Collectively, NVL employed approximately 2,100 staff and generated annual revenue of approximately €1 billion. For Rheinmetall, the acquisition represents the first formal entry into the naval domain: it adds shipbuilding, vessel repair, and naval weapons systems integration to a portfolio that had previously been exclusively land and air defence-oriented.

Unmanned Ground Vehicle Capability: DOK-ING

On 4 March 2026, Rheinmetall signed an agreement to acquire a 51 percent controlling stake in DOK-ING, a Croatian unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) manufacturer based in Zagreb, with the original founder retaining the remaining 49 percent. The transaction completed on 1 July 2026, with the company subsequently renamed Rheinmetall Unmanned Vehicles d.o.o. DOK-ING produces the MV-4 remote-controlled mine-clearing vehicle and a range of multi-role UGV platforms suited to WOME clearance tasks, including explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) operations. The acquisition adds that engineering capability and those qualified systems to Rheinmetall’s unmanned portfolio at a time of accelerating NATO interest in autonomous force protection and EOD UGV solutions. In the counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) domain, Rheinmetall has separately developed the Skyranger 30 system, which pairs the Oerlikon KDE 30mm autocannon with the Ahead (Advanced Hit Efficiency and Destruction) programmable airburst munition. The Ahead round uses a time-fused tungsten subprojectile payload rather than a conventional high-explosive (HE) fill, allowing operation in proximity to friendly forces at a lower Net Explosive Quantity (NEQ) risk profile than standard HE natures.

Completing the Automotive Exit: Power Systems Divestiture

The formal conclusion of Rheinmetall’s automotive exit came on 3 June 2026, when the company announced agreement to sell its Power Systems division to AEQUITA, a German investment holding company, for a reported consideration of approximately €350 million. Power Systems, producing diesel and gas engines for commercial and industrial applications, employed approximately 6,250 staff. The divestiture eliminates the last significant non-defence revenue stream from Rheinmetall’s group accounts, completing a strategic repositioning pursued consistently since the early 2010s. The effect concentrates all group resources on NATO-aligned defence production and removes any residual regulatory ambiguity about Rheinmetall’s status as a pure-play defence industrial prime.

The Ukraine Joint Venture

In October 2023, Rheinmetall and Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s state-owned defence industrial holding company, signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in which Rheinmetall holds 51 percent, branded Rheinmetall Ukraine. The initial scope covers repair, maintenance, and overhaul (RMO) of Rheinmetall-supplied equipment in Ukrainian service, including Lynx IFVs, Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs) fitted with Rheinmetall systems, and armoured engineering vehicles. Subsequent discussions have encompassed potential in-country production of ammunition and vehicle components. The joint venture is the first instance of a major Western European defence prime establishing formal production and maintenance structures inside a partner nation engaged in active armed conflict, creating a precedent with significant procurement policy implications for NATO members.

Analysis of Effects

Rheinmetall’s consolidation of Expal, RDM, and its legacy 155mm production at Unterluss creates a vertically integrated ammunition producer capable of competing with Nammo and BAE Munitions on scale. The combined capacity for 155mm L/52 artillery rounds across Rheinmetall-owned facilities represents a material fraction of the total NATO production base, with reported expansion targets of two to three million rounds annually by 2027. The integration of Loc Performance’s track and suspension components with Rheinmetall’s Boxer and Lynx assembly lines similarly closes a prior supply chain gap that had constrained platform output rates. On the systems integration side, the RBSL joint venture gives Rheinmetall a permanent share of British Army land vehicle through-life support, creating recurring revenue streams beyond the initial platform delivery phase.

Against these advantages, NATO and national procurement authorities must account for the concentration risk inherent in a single prime holding commanding positions across multiple WOME categories simultaneously. A production outage, regulatory investigation, or financial stress event at Rheinmetall would propagate across artillery ammunition, medium-calibre rounds, armoured IFVs, wheeled military vehicles, and now naval repair at the same time. No comparable concentration of critical WOME dependencies existed in the European defence industrial base at the start of this period. Sovereign production capability across Sweden’s BAE Bofors, France’s Eurenco, and the United Kingdom’s BAE Royal Ordnance provides some competitive balance. Rheinmetall’s scale and vertical integration now substantially exceed any single competitor in the European land-domain supply chain, however, and that structural concentration is a characteristic procurement authorities should model explicitly.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

The rapid scaling of Rheinmetall’s WOME production facilities carries obligations under the safety management frameworks applicable to energetics manufacturing. Facilities producing Hazard Division (HD) 1.1 Propellant (HD 1.1 C) and HD 1.1 D high-explosive natures are subject to Safety Authority (SA) licensing under national implementations of AASTP-1 (Allied Ammunition Storage and Transport Publication, Edition C) and applicable national explosives regulations. The Defence and Security Authority document DSA 03.OME and its associated frameworks require documented Quality Management Authority (QMA) activity at all production and storage stages. Rapid workforce expansion at newly acquired facilities, including Expal’s Murcia sites and Automecanica Mediaş, introduces competence-transfer risk: production personnel require specific energetics safety training before operating on licensed Potential Explosion Sites (PES), and line-capacity targets must not compress that training pipeline. Rheinmetall’s group Quality Management System (QMS) is certified to AQAP-2110 Edition D, which requires documented competence management under Clause 7.2. The speed of integration across multiple newly acquired sites will test how robustly that clause is implemented in practice when throughput pressure is high.

Data Gaps

The following information is not available from open sources and represents analytic limitations on this assessment. Precise current production rates at Expal’s Murcia facilities post-acquisition are not independently confirmed; figures of 1.5 million 155mm rounds annually derive from pre-acquisition characterisations and may not reflect current output. The total consideration and any contingent payments for the NVL Group acquisition have not been publicly disclosed. The operational scope and current production activities of Rheinmetall Ukraine are not confirmed from open sources beyond official statements; any in-country ammunition production that has commenced would carry significant operational and legal implications not yet addressed in public reporting. The financial terms of the DOK-ING acquisition beyond the confirmed 51 percent stake, and DOK-ING’s current UGV order book, are not available. Performance specifications for the Expal ER-0 2A1 extended-range 155mm round in Rheinmetall’s unified product catalogue have not been independently confirmed against pre-acquisition Expal specifications.

Corrections & updates welcome. If you hold open-source data that refines or corrects any parameter in this article, please contact [email protected] citing the specific claim and your source. Verified corrections will be incorporated and credited in the revision history. AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product.