Center is scheduled to start in April
Rheinmetall repairs weapons from Ukraine in Romania
4/2/2023 10:13 p.m
Rheinmetall is building a maintenance and logistics center “at full speed” near the Romanian border with Ukraine. Western combat systems for Ukraine such as the Leopard 2 are to be kept operational there. A similar center is in Lithuania.
In the future, Rheinmetall wants to service and repair weapons from Ukraine such as battle tanks and self-propelled howitzers in Romania. “Rheinmetall is working flat out to set up a military maintenance and logistics center in Romania, a NATO partner country,” said a Rheinmetall spokesman. Work on the site in the vicinity of the city of Satu Mare has already begun. This is near the Ukrainian border.
The center is scheduled to start work in April. It should “play a central role in maintaining the operational readiness of Western combat systems in use in Ukraine and in ensuring their logistical support”. According to the Düsseldorf group, this applies to self-propelled howitzers – but also to main battle tanks such as the Leopard 2 or the British Challenger, armored personnel carriers such as the Marder, Fuchs armored transport vehicles or military trucks. Combat vehicles of the NATO forces could also be looked after there.
“It is a key concern for us at Rheinmetall to give the NATO forces and Ukraine the best possible support in this critical situation,” said Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger. Servicing and repairing weapons supplied to Ukraine play an important role in the country’s defense after the Russian attack.
In June 2022, Rheinmetall, together with its partner company KMW, founded a comparable maintenance center in Jonava, Lithuania, in order to be able to look after combat vehicles of the Lithuanian and other NATO forces stationed in the Baltic States.