540 Systems to be Installed on Bundeswehr Trucks

Rheinmetall Waffe Munition is to supply a total of 540 ROSY rapid smoke/obscurant systems to equip the Bundeswehr’s swap-body trucks. The largest order yet for the battlefield protection solution, each system comprises two launchers with two magazines, a quick fastener and a control device.

Unlike conventional systems, ROSY produces an instantaneous, extensive, multispectral interruption of the line of sight. It can also generate a dynamic smokescreen, providing moving vehicles with prolonged protection. Installed in both protected and unprotected cabs, ROSY will keep deployed crews much safer, and will substantially enhance the survivability and sustainment of logistics units.

Unlike the Unprotected Transport Vehicle, or UTF, (also supplied by Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV), swap-body trucks also operate in forward zones of the area of operations, to keep combat and combat support units supplied with ammunition, for example. However, even when operating deep in the rear, logistics units must be ready to respond to attacks, which is why the fast-acting ROSY system makes a valuable contribution to force protection in rear echelon areas.

By early November 2021, Rheinmetall is due to deliver 150 ROSY system kits, with a further 390 to follow by the end of October 2022. There is considerable potential for additional orders: the Bundeswehr entered a framework agreement with RMMV in June 2020 for the supply of up to 4,000 swap-body trucks, a large percentage of which were to feature an armoured cab. In a first call-off, an order was issued for the production of 540 vehicles, 230 with protected cabs. Delivery commenced in early 2021. The goal is to make sure that the Bundeswehr has enough trucks in 2023, when Germany takes over leadership of the VJTF, NATO’s spearhead rapid reaction force.