The Italian military announced last week it would be acquiring 1050 KF41 based armoured vehicles from the joint venture between Rheinmetall AG and Leonardo S.p.A., which was recently approved by the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) under its Army Armoured Combat System (A2CS) program.
The details were offered during the Defence IQ International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) conference held 21 – 23 January 2025 in Farnborough in the United Kingdom. The intent is to replace the current 1980’s vintage VCC-80 Dardo infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and various other mechanized combat and combat support vehicles with a range of sixteen mission role vehicles all utilizing the KF41 as a common baseline. These variants will be configured as infantry transport/fighting, command and control, air defence, anti-tank, 120mm mortar carriers, reconnaissance, combat engineering, maintenance/recovery and logistic support. This will be facilitated through a modular approach that intends to provide for reconfiguration between variants.
The Army has set an aggressive A2CS program schedule with the initial prototypes to be provided as early as 2026 through 2029. Italy’s initial budget of €5.2 billion for the program is now projected to rise to €16 billion over fourteen years.
The KF41 is a designed to address not only current battlefield requirements but to offer a platform that can accommodate future technologies and system advances. Currently, Hungary is acquiring two-hundred and eighteen KF41 Lynx a portion of which will be manufactured in country. In addition, Lynx are reportedly being provided to the Ukraine with the first vehicles delivered early in 2025. Lynx is also a contender in the US Army Bradley replacement program.
KF41 variant configurations introduced to date have included: the Infantry Fighting Vehicle with 35mm WOTAN autocannon in the Lance 2.0 turret carrying up to eleven soldiers, the Reconnaissance, an Armoured Personnel Carrier with remote weapon station, recovery with RWS and crane, command, 120mm smoothbore fire support, and ambulance.
The common chassis has an 850 kW (1140hp) Liebherr engine and a Renk transmission and suspension system from the Australian firm Supashock. The combination assures the KF41 Lynx retains its mobility with any of the provides mission role modules and survivability packages being proposed.
The Lynx KF41 in the IFV weighs 44 tonnes yet provides a power-to-weight ratio of 26 hp/tonne. In addition to modular scalable ballistic and mine/blast protection the design minimizes the passive and active visual, thermal and acoustic signature of the vehicle reducing the possibility of detection. In addition, active countermeasures including ROSY and active defence systems can be provided.
The Lynx can have a road speed of 70 km/h and cruising range of 500 km. The commonality across the Lynx family assures that all elements of the force have compatible mobility and survivability inherent in the design offering a major benefit on the battlefield.
The Italian ground force modernization being represented by the substantial investment in the KF41 and in the A2CS program in total, which may also include a new Main Battle Tank, will give not only the Italian Army a significant capability but may also lay the foundation for a broader ground force step forward across NATO and Europe, as well as the potential for unprecedented interoperability with the United States.
by Stephen W. Miller
