Bundeswehr orders more mobile rescue stations from Rheinmetall

The Bundeswehr is procuring 149 more mobile rescue stations from Rheinmetall. (Rheinmetall)

The Bundeswehr has ordered 149 more mobile rescue stations from Rheinmetall, the company announced in a press release on 17 August 2026. Worth over EUR500 million (USD579 million), the call-off under a framework contract awarded at the end of 2024 is the largest order to date that the contractor, Rheinmetall Project Solutions, has ever received, the company claimed, adding that production is planned to begin during the first quarter of 2027.

The Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw), Germany's Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support, ordered 10 mobile rescue stations and six unprotected ones out of a total of up to 137 systems in December 2024. The latest order, booked in July 2026, brings the total being procured to 165 systems worth EUR600 million.

Rheinmetall said the contract includes personnel training and an option for call-offs of more armoured and unarmoured systems.

The rescue stations are part of the Bundeswehr medical service's Modulare Sanitätseinrichtungen (Modular Medical Facilities) system that provides soldiers with initial emergency medical treatment. Rheinmetall said four soldiers can quickly set up and dismantle the systems, based on a lesson learned from the Ukraine war that highly mobile systems are required for medical support.

Each rescue station comprises two containers that can be operated together or separately for several days, according to Rheinmetall. Each container has air conditioning and a generator that can back up both containers if the other one fails.

Rheinmetall said the system has a fully equipped emergency treatment station, as well as four additional treatment stations, with all the medical equipment mounted on airliner rails and configurable according to user requirements.