PARIS — The Netherlands has ordered Skyranger anti-drone cannons from Germany’s Rheinmetall for less than €1 billion (US$1.2 billion), below the budget flagged to parliament in January.
The Dutch will buy mobile versions of the Skyranger air-defense system as well as systems for stationary use, the Ministry of Defence said late Thursday. The first Skyrangers will be handed over late 2028, with deliveries completed by end-2029, Rheinmetall said in a separate statement Friday.
As drones have become ubiquitous on the front line in Ukraine, European countries are figuring out how to protect maneuvering troops against that threat. The Netherlands last month said it would fit a remote-controlled weapon system on wheeled armor as a quick-fix first capability ahead of the delivery of Skyrangers.
The Skyranger purchase “gives the Netherlands more options to defend itself against drones in the highest spectrum of violence,” the MoD said.
The Skyranger systems will complement existing short- and medium-range air defense, and will protect combat units as well as critical objects and locations such as the port of Rotterdam and military sites, the ministry said. The port of Rotterdam is Europe’s biggest, and a key hub for moving military supplies, including to Ukraine.
Rheinmetall said it will supply the Netherlands with a “two-digit number” of Skyranger systems, with a contract value in the “high triple-digit” million euro range. The company is unable to provide exact numbers for contractual reasons, Rheinmetall told Defense News, while the Dutch MoD didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions.
The defense firm said the Netherlands will receive “a completely new system” that can be used either in a mobile configuration on vehicles or as a stationary setup. Until now, Rheinmetall had been marketing Skyranger as a mobile system, displaying the cannon mounted on armor at defense shows such as Eurosatory in Paris and DSEI in London.
The Skyranger 30 is equipped with a 30mm revolver cannon that fires airburst munition, designed to take out drones weighing up to 600 kilograms at a distance of up to 5 kilometers.
In addition to the weapon platform consisting of a standard Skyranger 30 air-defense turret and lower mount for use on an armored carrier, the Dutch also ordered tactical-level control nodes and hook-lift transport platforms for stationary deployment, Rheinmetall said.
“The configuration for the Dutch armed forces, which enables both highly mobile operations and stationary use without a carrier vehicle, is unique to date,” said Oliver Dürr, managing director of Rheinmetall Air Defence. “Another NATO country has already expressed interest in this configuration.”
The Netherlands was planning to buy 22 Skyranger mobile air-defense cannons, in a project with a budget of €1.3 billion, State Secretary for Defence Gijs Tuinman told parliament in January.
“The upgrade of the Dutch mobile air defense capabilities also includes services provided by other suppliers,” Rheinmetall told Defense News in response to a question about the difference in value. “In addition, contracts can be extended.”
The Netherlands signed a contract with Rheinmetall Switzerland, which will build the first three prototypes, while Rheinmetall’s business in Ede in the Netherlands will play a “major role” in production and assembly of the remaining systems, the MoD said.
Detailed planning is still ongoing, with the Ede site set to integrate the air-defense systems onto the vehicle structure, while maintenance and spare-parts supply could also be handled from the Dutch location, according to Rheinmetall.
Hensoldt signed a long-term framework agreement to provide Rheinmetall with its Spexer 2000 radar for ground-based air defense, in particular for drone defense and the Skyranger 30 system, the German defense-electronics maker said in a separate statement Friday. The agreement will remain valid until the 2030s, and has a potential volume in the “high three-digit range,” Hensoldt said.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
