Austria will receive 36 Skyranger 30 on 6×6 Pandur Evo
Gerhard Heiming
Austria is equipping 36 of its recently ordered 225 wheeled armored vehicles Pandur Evo (ESuTreported) with Rheinmetall's Skyranger 30 air defense system, the company reported on February 23. Rheinmetall received a corresponding order with a volume in the mid three-digit million euros from the main contractor GDELS. Deliveries are scheduled to take place from 2026. This is the first delivery order for the cannon-based air defense system. With this procurement, Austria is securing a pioneering role in mobile ground-based air defense in Europe.
Rheinmetall supplies the versatile anti-aircraft turret solution with the Oerlikon KCE turret gun in 30 x 173 mm caliber as the core. The tower developed for Austria is a particularly light variant of the Skyranger tower that is particularly suitable for integration into the 6×6 wheeled vehicle, the company writes. The Mistral guided missile is intended as secondary armament, for which a dual launcher is integrated. This means the system can cover a combat range from zero meters (including against unmanned aircraft) to six kilometers. The cannon can fire programmable fragmentation ammunition (airburst ammunition, ABM), which uses a timer to eject a deadly cloud of 152 sub-projectiles close to the target. The Mistral (Missile Transportable Antiaérien Léger) from MBDA is a fire-and-forget missile that has a maximum speed of Mach 2.5, a warhead weighing three kg and a four-digit number of hard metal bullets - triggered by impact or proximity fuzes – can achieve the goal.
From Rheinmetall's perspective, the success in Austria marks the beginning of a broad introduction of the Skyranger 30 in Europe. A prompt order is expected from Germany and Denmark, as well as - after successful completion of the development contract in that country - from Hungary.
„Wir sind dankbar für das Vertrauen unserer Freunde und Partner in Österreich. Das durch Rheinmetall in der Schweiz entwickelte System leistet einen entscheidenden Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Fähigkeiten in der Luftverteidigung – zunächst in Österreich, aber auch zeitnah in weiteren Ländern“, sagte Armin Papperger, Vorstandsvorsitzender der Rheinmetall AG.
According to Rheinmetall, Austria has made the overall renewal of air defense a priority in a comprehensive situation analysis. The modernization and upgrade of the existing stationary 35mm systems to Skyguard Next Generation (NG), decided in December 2023, was the first step in this regard. Now the decision to introduce the Skyranger 30 will also close the gap in mobile air defense.
In a few days the order for Skyranger 30 systems on Boxer will be made from Germany. The procurement has been approved since February 21st. For Denmark, the development of Skyranger 30 systems on 8×8 Piranha is largely completed and essentially ready for procurement. Hungary commissioned the development of a Skyranger 30 system for use with the Lynx KF41 tracked vehicle in December 2023. The implementation of the Skyranger 30 system on different carrier vehicles shows the modular approach that was followed when designing the system. Not only different carrier vehicles but also different sensors and missile systems can be integrated around the rapid-fire cannon according to customer requirements.
“Rheinmetall is once again underlining its technological leadership in short-range air defense,” said Oliver Dürr, CEO of Rheinmetall Air Defense:
Gerhard Heiming