Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 Debuts at LandEuro 2025 to Counter Drone Swarms

Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 Debuts at LandEuro 2025 to Counter Drone Swarms

Published:

July 17, 2025

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Updated:

July 17, 2025

Air & Missile Defense Systems

Peter Johansson

LandEuro 2025 opened on 16 July at the Rhein-Main Congress Centre in Wiesbaden, drawing delegations from twenty-seven nations and a broad cross-section of the European defense industry. Germany’s Rheinmetall used the forum to introduce a production-standard Skyranger 30 turret mounted on an 8×8 Boxer chassis. According to industry sources, senior procurement officers from at least seven NATO members attended the live firing showcase at a nearby Bundeswehr range on the eve of the exhibition.

Combat experience in Ukraine and the Caucasus has shown that small unmanned aerial systems, first-person-view strike drones, and one-way attack munitions can appear without warning, dive below radar horizons, and destroy vehicles worth millions with warheads the size of a soda can. Defense officials confirm that such threats now arrive in swarms, often mixed with decoys, making spot-jamming or shoulder-launched missiles too slow or too costly on a per-shot basis.

Rheinmetall answers that problem with a hybrid gun-and-missile approach seated in a turret light enough for wheeled or tracked carriers. The heart of the system is a 30 mm × 173 KCE revolver cannon firing programmable AHEAD ammunition. Each projectile bursts at a computer-set point, dispersing tungsten pellets that slice drone airframes or detonate warheads. A single three-round salvo neutralizes a quad-copter out to nearly three kilometers; five rounds can break a light fixed-wing platform sneaking in just above tree tops.

Two missile pods sit under armored doors on opposite flanks. In the German configuration they hold FIM-92 Stinger rounds because crews already train with that seeker and logistics pipeline. Hungary requested the same hull geometry for its tracked Lynx KF41 testbed, yet asked Rheinmetall to wire the launcher for Mistral-3. Denmark stayed with Mistral, while Austria accepted a mixed fit that lets units swap missiles during pre-mission preparation rather than in depot overhaul. The Netherlands, having announced a twenty-two-vehicle order in January, will migrate to the nine-cell DefendAir “mini-missile” after 2029 once low-rate production matures.

Target detection relies on three fixed-panel Hensoldt Spexer 2000M antennas that look over the hull roof line and scan every quadrant at short intervals, registering a micro-UAS at about six kilometers. An electro-optic director provides identification and tracks in cluttered defilades where radar returns bounce off steelwork and walls. All data converge inside an AI-assisted battle-management computer that can hand targets to a neighboring turret or accept cues from distant sensors. That network integration places Skyranger 30 within NATO’s broader European Sky Shield effort, which layers radars, guns, missiles, and lasers under common message formats.

Although the turret’s gross mass stays below 2.5 tons, it carries a dedicated generator and independent positioners, allowing the carrier vehicle crew to dismount while the weapon functions remotely. This design also permits shipment by C-130 or A400M without removing external modules. Rheinmetall notes that the turret ring cuts into the vehicle roof by only 85 millimeters, so most existing troop-carrier interiors require no floor redesign – a cost driver for other air-defense retrofits.

The first Boxer verification model rolled onto a Bundeswehr parade ground at the end of January. Acceptance trials will span summer and autumn, focusing on shoot-on-the-move profiles and hot refueling procedures. Serial deliveries for Germany remain scheduled for 2027 and 2028. Defense planners in Berlin calculate that two Skyranger platoons per mechanized brigade hedge against drone strikes during river crossings, rearm points, and casualty evacuations until heavier theater-level assets arrive.

Hungary, acting as launch export customer, ordered a concept study in December 2023. Engineers there have since integrated the turret wiring harness with the Lynx mission computer and performed vibration tests on the vehicle’s torsion-bar suspension. Austria placed an initial order for three Pandur EVO carriers with follow-on options for nine more, mainly to protect its rapid reaction battalion. Denmark chose a lighter Eagle V 4×4 chassis because arctic-deployed battalions prefer a smaller footprint on ice roads. The Dutch deal, valued at about €1.3 billion, specifies tracked ACSV Gen 5 hulls for easier support through existing Scandinavia-wide logistics centers.

Industrial responsibilities split across borders. Rheinmetall’s Zürich plant machines turrets and slides guns for cold-weather tolerance. Final assembly for German and Austrian vehicles happens at Unterlüß; Danish systems complete the line in Aalborg; Dutch hulls arrive as kits for local assembly in Ede. A digital twin of each vehicle captures firmware versions, ballistics tables, and radar settings. Program managers state that this common cloud, hosted on a NATO-accredited data spine, prevents divergence that plagued earlier multinational weapon programs.

Training follows a similar federated model. A two-seat desktop simulator built around the same fire-control software allows gunners to practice on recorded flight paths from real combat footage. Developers load new drone signatures through quarterly patches rather than annual disk releases, cutting recognition lag to weeks. Rheinmetall claims that ten simulation hours save roughly one live-fire training day, a figure validated during Bundeswehr user trials in April.

From an operational standpoint, Skyranger 30 fills the tier between shoulder-fired missiles and Patriot or SAMP/T batteries. It travels with maneuver elements, shoots at low angles without danger zones that artillery rounds impose, and stays affordable enough to justify broad fielding. Its ammunition mix also reduces per-engagement cost; one AHEAD burst remains far cheaper than most radio-frequency or laser interceptors proposed for the same mission space.

Competing solutions exist. Kongsberg’s CORTEX integrates a 30 mm XM914 chain gun with radar and electro-optic sights on a 6×6 hull, yet it lacks missile pods in the baseline block. Spain’s Escribano Guardian 30 adds two Mistral tubes but requires a heavier pedestal and offers no programmable air-burst rounds comparable to AHEAD. Israel’s Iron Dome outranges them all but demands a larger radar trailer and carries a missile price tag unsuitable for balloon-borne targets. Customers weighing options thus look at life-cycle cost as much as performance metrics.

Affordability hinges partly on the turret’s modular nature. Defense ministries can buy cannon-only vehicles first, then add missile pods when budgets permit. Software updates land by encrypted link, avoiding depot reflashing. Even the radar faceplates swap without lifting the whole sensor mast, which helps operators shift to next-generation GaN panels expected later in the decade.

Challenges remain. Each turret burns through ammunition magazines quickly when drone swarms approach, so resupply drills need refinement. The verification model still uses an interim power distribution board that cannot feed both radar and gun servos at full draw in Arctic temperatures. Rheinmetall engineers promise a revised generator set by the second production batch. Sensor fusion also demands spectrum management discipline; national armies must align data-link plans during combined operations, or else risk cross-talk and lost tracks.

Our analysis shows that Rheinmetall has positioned Skyranger 30 not as a silver-bullet marvel but as a practical, rapidly deployable safeguard against an air threat that no longer respects front lines. Flexible missile bays, proven air-burst ammunition, and modest integration costs give the system an edge at a moment when defense chiefs want immediate fielding rather than yet-to-mature laser concepts. Interest across multiple NATO capitals, coupled with a clear delivery schedule, suggests momentum that incremental technical fixes are unlikely to derail.

REFERENCE SOURCES

https://www.overtdefense.com/2025/02/06/netherlands-acquires-22-tracked-vehicles-to-combat-drone-threats/

https://worlddefencenews.blogspot.com/2025/07/landeuro-2025-germanys-rheinmetall.html

https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/news-watch/news/2025/02/2025-02-05-rheinmetall-hands-over-verification-model-of-skyranger-30-to-the-bundeswehr

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2025/01/30/netherlands-to-buy-rheinmetall-anti-drone-cannons-in-135-billion-buy/

https://www.armyrecognition.com/focus-analysis-conflicts/army/defence-security-industry-technology/landeuro-2025-germanys-rheinmetall-skyranger-30-offers-hybrid-weapon-system-against-drones-and-loitering-munitions

https://thedefensepost.com/2025/01/31/netherlands-anti-drone-guns/

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