Shortly after the contractor Rheinmetall, the Bundeswehr's procurement office, the BAAINBw, also informed about the concluded procurement contract. With the diction “flak tank”, the office also uses the term to refer to the Gepard anti-aircraft gun tank, which was retired from the Bundeswehr in 2010. The gap that was created by the decommissioning will be closed with the Skyranger 30, writes the BAAINBw.
With the procurement of the Skyranger 30 anti-aircraft gun tank, the Bundeswehr is closing a capability gap in the area of mobile defense of unmanned aircraft systems (Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System, C-UAS), the office continued.
The qualification of the system, measured against the requirements of the Bundeswehr, will begin with the delivery of a prototype at the end of 2024, which should be completed in such a way that delivery of the series devices can begin from the beginning of 2026. The contract also contains an option to procure an additional 30 Boxer Skyranger 30s.
According to the BAAINBw, the subsystem of the air defense system in close and immediate area protection (NNbS) will initially be equipped with a machine cannon with a caliber of 30 millimeters (note: revolver cannon Oerlikon 30mm x 173 KCE) and the Stinger guided missile. Another guided missile will be added later to strengthen the defense capability against attacks from the air. As far as is known, the IRIS-T SLM guided missile is a candidate, which was ordered in another advance procurement for the NNbS.
The BAAINBw expressly points out that the new tank is designed in such a way that it can be easily combined with existing air defense components and completely integrated into their units.
The order for the Boxer Skyranger 30 takes another urgently needed step towards closing the capability gap in mobile air defense. The importance of this has been demonstrated in the recent past by the reactivation of the decommissioned Gepard anti-aircraft tanks abroad and is becoming clear every day in Ukraine, where the anti-aircraft tanks save lives every day.
Editorial staff / gwh