Rheinmetall presents Lynx 120 mechanised fire support vehicle

Rheinmetall has unveiled the Lynx 120 mechanised fire support vehicle armed with a 120 mm gun. (Rheinmetall)

Rheinmetall announced the unveiling of the Lynx 120 mechanised fire support vehicle in a press release on 18 February. The company said the vehicle uses a Lynx KF41 chassis and a scaleable large-calibre turret concept.

The Lynx 120 has off-the-shelf components and its vehicle architecture has been simplified while complying with NATO standards, according to Rheinmetall.

The vehicle is armed with a Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun based on the main armament of the Leopard 2 main battle tank that can fire DM11 programmable high-explosive rounds. Its secondary armament is a co-axial machine gun and a commander's independent weapon station with an additional 50-cal machine gun.

The Lynx 120 is equipped with a 360° camera system with automatic target detection and tracking, reducing the crew's workload, Rheinmetall said. Special protection modules can be installed against ballistic threats, improvised explosive devices, explosively formed penetrators and artillery fire, including active protection systems like Rheinmetall's Active Defence System (ADS) to protect against rocket-propelled grenades.

The unveiling of the Lynx 120 comes four months after Rheinmetall presented the combat support vehicle (CSV) variant of the Lynx KF41 in October 2021.