Rheinmetall: Up to 1,000 Skyrangers could be procured
As Europe grapples with the need to once more defend its skies and infrastructure from Russian attacks, Rheinmetall’s CEO predicts that sales of the company’s Skyranger short-range air defence system could exceed 1,000 units in the near future.
Rheinmetall sees sales potential for more than 1,000 Skyranger air defence systems. As Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger explained today in a conference call with analysts, Germany alone is considering procuring 600 to 650 systems, although the final number is not yet 100 percent confirmed.
According to the CEO, the German Armed Forces’ Skyranger procurement is part of a larger Boxer procurement project by the Bundeswehr called “Arminius.” Arminius will likely consolidate the procurement of various Boxer variants. Papperger stated that the Arminius project is expected to amount to around 40 billion euros, of which approximately 22 billion would be Rheinmetall’s share.
The German Armed Forces, like many in Europe, are working on expanding their air defence and anti-aircraft capabilities and are preparing to procure 500 to 600 Skyranger anti-aircraft gun vehicles.
According to the Rheinmetall CEO, there is great interest in the Skyranger system, which can be integrated into various platforms, from Denmark, Austria, and other European nations. “We expect to sell far more than 1,000 Skyrangers,” he said.
Papperger added that the Skynex air defence system is also very successful. In Ukraine, the system is being used successfully not only for drone defence but also for intercepting missiles – although he did not specify what type. The English term “missile” can refer to both cruise missiles and rockets. Since Skynex is a system related to the Skyranger, similar anti-aircraft gun systems could potentially achieve similar success.
Calibre comment: Air defence has layers
Skyranger provides very short range and cost-effective air defence against things like Shaheds and some cruise missiles. It is seen as being important both for point defence of airfields – albeit in a different configuration – and for mobile defence of deployed forces. This requires significant quantities of vehicles. It could take as many as 20 to provide adequate defence for a brigade, for example, with yet more assigned to air field and headquarters protection. Whilst the numbers seem huge, the area that has to be covered is also huge, and the costs of failure to defend a deployed force immeasurable. So, many European companies are driving the development and procurement of these systems to make sure that their deployed forces and critical national infrastructure can be defended.
By Waldemar Geiger with comment from Sam Cranny-Evans, published in English on November 7th, 2025. The lead image shows a Skyranger fitted to a Boxer vehicle during a demonstration in the Netherlands. Credit: Defensie Nederlands, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
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