Romania signs €5.7 billion defense deal with Rheinmetall for Lynx vehicles, Skyranger systems, and naval vessels
Romania signed a €5.7 billion defense package with Rheinmetall on 29 May, covering 298 Lynx combat vehicles, Skyranger air-defense systems, ammunition, and naval vessels. The contracts were awarded through the EU's Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program. Deliveries are scheduled from 2028 to 2030, with Rheinmetall planning fresh investment in Romania and the creation of thousands of jobs.
Romania signed a €5.7 billion defense package with Rheinmetall on 29 May, covering 298 Lynx combat vehicles, Skyranger air-defense systems, ammunition, and naval vessels, in what the German manufacturer called the largest international contract in its recent history.
The contracts were awarded by Romania's Directorate General for Armaments and routed through the European Union's Security Action for Europe (SAFE) programme, the bloc's new financing instrument designed to help member states pay for large defense procurement.
At the center of the package are 298 Lynx vehicles, Rheinmetall's latest-generation medium-weight tracked combat platform. The bulk will be armored personnel carrier variants, alongside mortar-carrier, command-post, and medical configurations, giving the Romanian Land Forces a single family of vehicles for infantry transport, indirect fire, command, and casualty evacuation on a common chassis and supply chain.
On the air-defense side, Romania ordered the Skyranger mobile short-range air-defense system mounted on the Lynx chassis. The system is designed to counter small drones and low-flying aircraft. Until those systems arrive, Rheinmetall agreed to keep Romania's existing Gepard anti-aircraft gun vehicles running to provide continuity of cover during the transition. The package also includes medium-calibre ammunition for the air-defense guns and for the new personnel carriers.
The naval component adds two offshore patrol vessels and two diver-support vessels for the Romanian Navy, built to what Rheinmetall called a proven design from its recently established Naval Systems business.
Deliveries will begin in 2028 and run through to 2030. Rheinmetall will invest several hundred million euros in Romania to fulfill the contracts, using its Romanian subsidiary Rheinmetall Automecanica in Medias. The company said it will bring more than two hundred subcontractors into the supply network and create thousands of new jobs.