The Procurement Office of the Bundeswehr yesterday ordered the production and delivery of a further 1,515 military swap-body loader systems (WLS) from company Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicle GmbH. 265 of these vehicles will be ordered with a protected cabin and will be manufactured in Vienna.
The renewed call-off of the trucks is based on a framework agreement concluded in June 2020 and will enable the first vehicles to be delivered this month. The troops will also receive 500 swap-body platforms and 500 tarpaulin/bows bodies. These are substructures with tarpaulins to cover the load. So far, more than 1,000 trucks and around 3,000 swap-body platforms and 2,320 tarpaulin and bowser bodies have been delivered under the framework agreement. https://militaeraktuell.at/bekommt-die-ukraine-dassault-mirage-kampfjets/ The total funding requirement for the new call-off amounts to around 920 million euros and is largely financed from the Bundeswehr’s special assets. The delivery of all vehicles should be completed by November 2024. The project had previously been approved by the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag as part of a so-called “25 million euro bill”. According to a recent press release, the now commissioned call-off will strengthen military transport capacities for supplying the troops with bulk consumer goods, such as ammunition and operating supplies, particularly with regard to the Bundeswehr’s focus on national and alliance defense.
The WLS are highly mobile, all-terrain wheeled vehicles. They each consist of a truck in the 15-ton payload class with a swap body and a swap body platform. These flatbeds can be pulled onto the vehicle using a hook. This enables the troops to be supplied with bulk consumables such as ammunition and fuel without the need for additional handling equipment such as cranes or forklift trucks. In the protected version, the entire driver’s cab of the vehicles has a protected cell that offers up to three occupants protection against the effects of splinters, infantry ammunition and landmines.
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