Rheinmetall has officially inaugurated what is currently Europe's largest facility for the production of 155 mm artillery ammunition in Unterluess, Lower Saxony (Germany). With an investment of around €500 million and a record construction time of 15 months, the plant is a direct response to the urgent need to replenish the stocks of the German and European Armed Forces.

The ceremony was attended by numerous civil and military authorities, including German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, German Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Carsten Breuer, as well as representatives from the United States, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria.

The site, which covers an area of approximately 30,000 m², is expected to reach full operational capablity by 2027 and, when fully operational, will be able to produce up to 350,000 rounds of ammunition per year. The first 25,000 projectiles will be delivered by the end of 2025, while production of propulsion systems for rocket launchers is scheduled to start in 2026.

According to Rheinmetall’s CEO Armin Papperger, the new plant will play a central role in the group's industrial network, which aims to achieve a total production of 1.5 million projectiles per year, thanks in part to sites in Spain, South Africa, and those recently acquired/built in Hungary and Lithuania. It should also be noted that, in July last year, Rheinmetall and the Ukrainian Government signed an agreement for the construction of a plant for the production of ammunition in Ukraine.

The construction of the new plant responds to the need to support the ramp-up in production and strengthen the continental supply chain in the ammunition sector, whose centrality has been clear since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

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