Rheinmetall

Rheinmetall AG is Germany's largest and Europe's most prominent defence manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf since its founding in 1889, producing armoured vehicles, artillery, ammunition, loitering munitions, and, increasingly, autonomous ground systems. Its 2025 revenue reached €9.9 billion, up 29% year-on-year, with group guidance for €14.0-14.5 billion in 2026 as European rearmament spending accelerates.

In drone and loitering-munition procurement, Rheinmetall won a multi-billion FV-014 loitering-munition framework with a €300M initial call-off for 10,000+ units on 22 April 2026, producing from a converted Neuss auto plant for first delivery H1 2027, primarily arming the Bundeswehr brigade in Lithuania. On the autonomous ground systems front, Rheinmetall acquired a 51% stake in Croatian UGV maker DOK-ING in March 2026, integrating its PATH autonomy kit across the Mission Master UGV family and establishing a competence centre for autonomous tactical systems in Zagreb. At Eurosatory 2026 in Paris, the three-way partnership of Rheinmetall, DOK-ING, and Pearson Engineering unveiled the MV-8 Komodo, the world's first uncrewed mine-breaching system on a next-generation UGV, developed and tested in under six months.

Rheinmetall's trajectory reflects the broadest single-company bet on European autonomous land warfare. Its Mission Master UGV line spans cargo, armed reconnaissance, and now mine-breaching roles. A €180M 155mm ammunition factory in Lithuania, operational mid-2026, brings production physically closer to NATO's eastern flank. For NATO planners, Rheinmetall is the closest European prime that can simultaneously sustain legacy platform supply, the new attritable-drone tier, and next-generation autonomous ground systems.