Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles – a new joint venture for European armoured vehicle production – has won its first contract to deliver 21 vehicles to the Italian Army, according to a release today (5 November 2025).
The team, established a year ago, will provide its Army Armoured Combat System, or A2CS as the Italian Army programme to procure more than 1,000 armoured fighting vehicles is known; A2SC will begin to replace Italy's ageing fleet of VCC-80 Dardo and M113s. The vehicle is based on Rheinmetall’s Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicle.
With the baseline Lynx chassis, the Italian Army has the option to select a range of different turret systems according to their specific mission requirements. In this spirit, the first five units will be integrated with the German manufacturer’s optionally crewed, medium calibre Lance turret while another 16 units will feature Leonardo’s Hitfist system operated by two personnel.
Both turrets provide mobile protected firepower, however Hitfist is a sovereign system to Italy, allowing the government to prioritise local production. This will extend to the next generation German-designed systems, which will also be produced in the JV's La Spezia plants.
Modularity – the ability to reintegrate different capabilities where needed – is a necessity to meet what the Italian Ministry of Defence described in a report outlining their specifications for A2CS back in 2023 as “heterogeneous and unpredictable threats”: from explosive ordnance, anti-tank weapons, direct or indirect fire and air support fire, to drones, kamikaze drones or loitering munitions, and the new space/cyber domains.
Given the saturated airspace, the threat landscape may lead Italy's military officials to consider the procurement of Rheinmetall's Skyranger air defence turret too, which the company has widely displayed at trade shows throughout this year at DSEI in London and AUSA in Washington DC, for example.
To this end, the agreement also includes the option to upgrade the whole fleet to the Hitfist configuration, and the contract also stipulates the possibility for an additional 30 optional vehicles, training, and simulation systems to better train crews.
In tandem, the Army will operate more than 200 KF51 Panther main battle tanks, also a Rheinmetall platform, alongside the A2CS, replacing enduring fleet of C1 Ariete MBTs. This was agreed upon after talks to cooperate on an Italian version of the Leopard 2A8 fell through in 2024.
