Rheinmetall Italia at work on very short-range air defense systems for Ukraine.
Skynex is the name of the anti-aircraft system made by the German defense giant Rheinmetall, produced in Italy in its Rome plant.
After being awarded the €182 million contract last year by the German government to supply two Skynex systems to Kyiv by the end of 2023, some of which have already been delivered to Ukraine, the company is now working on three more Skynex systems, bringing the total value of the order to around €500 million.
On March 1, the German conglomerate announced the award of an additional contract for the supply of Skynex air defense systems “to a European customer”, without specifying which one. The systems will improve the customer’s ability to defend against aerial threats, Rheinmetall said in a statement. Deliveries will take place during 2025 and, as with the initial contract, will also include the associated HX trucks also produced by the German company.
The deployment of Rheinmetall-built Skynex air defense system in Ukraine is raising the profile of the product and sparking new orders from around the world, Rheinmetall said earlier this year, Defense News reported. According to the CEO of Rheinmetall Italy, on December 31, Ukraine had received a Skynex battery built in Italy by the company’s subsidiary Rheinmetall and was operational.
Now Rheinmetall Italia will build other Skynex systems for Kiev.
“And with the urgency that forced us to cut production times, the Italian company – founded as Contraves in 1952, later merged with Oerlikon in 1993 and acquired by the German Rheinmetall in 1999 – has strengthened its lines and supply chain. A 100 million investment effort for the rethinking and modernization of the plant in 2023, to which at least another 20 million will be added in 2024,” reports Il Sole 24 Ore.
“We were used to processing an order in 24 months, the request now was 18, we managed to do it in 12,” CEO Alessandro Ercolani commented to the cconfindustriale newspaper: “A timing that we expect to become constant, not only related to the emergency. We have invested to become flexible: demand has evolved and supply must be able to change in ever shorter times. The war in Ukraine that broke out in February 2022 has changed the paradigm of defense companies.” Rheinmetall Italia’s Rome plant, in particular, has been invested with new production responsibilities, notes Il Sole 24 Ore, adding that “Already a world leader in the radar segment, with all the production of electronics and radio frequency technology, it has acquired the patents for the construction of cannons that were previously produced in Switzerland, in Zurich.” All this also translated into numbers: the German arms and ammunition group filed its 2023 financial statements with record profits and orders. And for 2024, Rheinmetall expects sales and profitability to increase as the war in Ukraine boosts defense budgets in NATO countries. Not to mention that Rheinmetall’s shares have quadrupled over the last two years, catapulting the company into the German blue-chip Dax index.
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