DIn the future, Germany will get an important part of its weapons from a factory that is almost 16,000 kilometers away from Berlin as the crow flies. An agreement in principle for the construction and delivery of more than 100 Boxer wheeled armored vehicles from the new Rheinmetall factory near Brisbane, Australia was to be signed on the sidelines of Anthony Albanese’s visit to Berlin. The Australian Prime Minister is on his way to attend the NATO summit in Vilnius. The construction of the German tanks should bring Australia an added value of around one billion Australian dollars (610 million euros), Albanese said.
More than a thousand people already work in the Düsseldorf factory in Australia. They build the Boxers at their Rheinmetall Military Vehicle Center of Excellence site in Redbank in the eastern Australian state of Queensland. Rheinmetall had won the Australian dollar order, valued at 5.2 billion Australian dollars, to equip their army with 211 wheeled scout tanks. A few weeks ago they presented the first locally manufactured German tank. The Germans also sell and service MAN’s HX4x4 heavy-duty truck in Australia and New Zealand. And they are following suit with medium-sized companies: the Munich-based drone manufacturer Quantum-Systems has just opened a branch in front of the factory premises as a “strategic partner” of Rheinmetall Australia.
Albanese will not have an easy time with NATO
The processing of the Australian order and the order from Germany could be followed by a third: The Düsseldorf-based company is also still struggling for the “Land 400 Phase 3” project: Initially, it should include around 450 tanks for an estimated almost 30 billion Australian dollars. In the course of realigning its army, Canberra then focused more on external defense with nuclear-powered submarines from its armaments partners America and Great Britain (AUKUS), drones and missiles. This leaves less money for the Panzertruppe. The Düsseldorf-based company is sending its Lynx KF 41 into the running for the scaled-down job. They compete with the Redback of the South Korean Hanwha. In Canberra it is said that Berlin is also interested in the delivery of Lynx from Brisbane if Rheinmetall wins.
Military relations between Germany and Australia are growing rapidly after Germany failed to place an initial order for new submarines in 2017. In recent years, however, Berlin has sent a frigate and fighter planes. Over the next few days, a good two hundred German soldiers will take part in the Talisman Saber maneuver with twelve other countries in Australia.
Albanese, meanwhile, won’t have it easy at NATO, because his Labor Party comrade, former Prime Minister Paul Keating, had just publicly called NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg a “dumbass.” He also criticized the “malicious poison” of a European and American militarism that NATO is spreading into the world. His successor Albanese, on the other hand, praised the close cooperation in view of the cooperation with Rheinmetall even before his departure: “The contract will support Australia’s own defense industry, secure local jobs and support Australia’s economic growth.” Stoltenberg invited the heads of government of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, who ” Indo-Pacific 4”, to the summit, “because our security is not regional but global”.
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