Leonardo Rheinmetall, the programme for the purchase of new Panther tanks for the Italian Army lands in Parliament. Here is what changes
Duration of 14 years, costing more than eight billion
by Andrea Carli
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Key points
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The programme for the new Panther tanks for the Italian Army has come under the lens of the committees Defence of the House and Senate. It replaces the one for the Leopard 2, approved earlier this year but then abandoned. It will have Leonardo and Germany's Rheinmetall as reference companies for the realisation. The industrial sectors affected by the realisation of this programme are mainly those of the mechanical engineering, electronics, optoelectronics, and systems industry.
The parliamentary passage
.Parliament's activity in relation to the acquisition of weapons systems, works and means directly intended for national defence is carried out through the examination of the relevant programmes that the Government submits to Parliament for the expression of the required opinion by the Defence Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The deadline for expressing the opinion is 10 November in the Chamber and 5 November in the Senate.
The aim of this programme is to renew and complete the combat capability of the armoured forces, which is currently guaranteed by the legacy platforms Aries and Leopard 1 in derived versions.
Two-stage operation
.The draft ministerial decree being examined by the committees ("Schema di decreto ministeriale di approvazione del programma pluriennale di A/R n. SMD 25/2024, entitled 'Renewal of the armoured component (new Main Battle Tank and derived platforms) of the military land instrument') concerns, in the first phase, the development and production of prototypes and the homologation of platforms and, in the second, the purchase of 132 platforms of the new tanks to equip two tank regiments and 140 derived armoured platforms (recovery rescue, bridge launchers and pioneer) that will complement the current fleet of Ariete vehicles and Leopard 1 platforms, which are not considered sufficient in quantity and lack the operational standards 'required by the nature of the current threats and the peculiar needs of the modern battlefield'.
The (unlaunched) Leopard tank project
.The realisation of the new wagons, which will use Rheinmetall's Panther wagons as a platform, will lead to the creation of the 50:50 joint venture between Leonardo and the German group presented at the beginning of October. The ministerial decree approved at the beginning of the year related to the Leopard 2 tank plan, which was to be developed instead by Leonardo with Knds but on which no agreement was reached.
