Italy is spending billions on tanks and IFVs

Leonardo S.p.A. and Rheinmetall AG have formed a joint venture, LRMV (Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles) S.p.A., tasked with the development, subsequent production, and delivery of new armoured combat vehicles for the Italian Army (Esercito Italiano). Within the framework of these operations, two agreements with a total value of $4.16 billion (€3.7 billion) were concluded, which will allow for the implementation of two programmes. The first is the A2CS (Army Armoured Combat Systems) programme, which, based on the KF41 Lynx tracked platform developed by Rheinmetall, envisages the development of a new infantry fighting vehicle and an entire family of armoured combat vehicles derived from it.

Within the A2CS framework, the following are to be developed:

• Infantry Fighting Vehicle,
• Light/Medium Tank with a 120 mm gun,
• Fire Support Vehicle,
• Command Vehicle,
• Anti-Tank Missile Carrier,
• Combat Engineer Vehicle,
• Ammunition Carrier,
• Self-Propelled Mortar (Medium),
• Self-Propelled Mortar (Heavy),
• Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft System with C-UAS capability,
• Medical Evacuation Vehicle,
• Reconnaissance Combat Vehicle,
• Armoured Recovery Vehicle,
• Driver Training Vehicle.

Tank procurement plan and C1 Ariete fleet modernisation

In total, over 1,100 vehicles from the A2CS family are to be purchased. In addition to this programme, the NMBT (New Main Battle Tank) programme is also being conducted, based on the KF51 Panther technology demonstrator developed by Rheinmetall. The NMBT is ultimately intended to have a newly developed hull based on the Bergepanzer 3A2 Büffel armoured recovery vehicle, which is to be equipped with a powerpack developed in Italy. The vehicle is to be armed with an Rh120/L55A1 smoothbore gun with a capacity of 20 rounds of 120x570 mm ammunition, a coaxial 12.7 mm heavy machine gun using 12.7x99 mm ammunition, and a remote-controlled weapon station with a 30 mm autocannon for 30x113 mm ammunition.

Italy plans to purchase 132 main battle tanks developed under the NMBT project and 140 support vehicles based on them. These are likely to be armoured recovery vehicles, combat engineer tanks, and self-propelled bridges. They will supplement the fleet of 200 C1 Ariete tanks, 90 of which are to be modernised to the C2 Ariete standard with an option for the modernisation of a further 35 vehicles. Consequently, the Italian Army may possess up to 132 NMBT tanks and 90–125 C2 Ariete tanks, providing a total of 222–257 main battle tanks.