Hello everyone, welcome back to Military TV. In today’s episode we will take a look at Rheinmetall
Lynx KF41, the infantry fighting vehicle. If you want to get further details regarding this tank,
stay with us and watch this video till the end!
The Lynx is a German armoured fighting vehicle developed by Rheinmetall Land system that is a
part of Rheinmetall's Vehicle Systems division. According to Rheinmetall, the Lynx family of
tracked armoured vehicles is at the forefront of a new trend in Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV),
designed toward armoured vehicles with lower unit and through-life costs and reduced complexity.
One of the key principles of the Lynx concept is the integration of proven sub-systems with
a high technology readiness level to reduce development time, cost, and technical risk.
The Lynx platform provides maximum freedom of action.
It ensures exceptional mobility, collect, analyses and disseminates data,
also offers windows of opportunity for responding to flexible and effective battlefield threats.
In regard to its general characteristics, KF 41 allows a maximum permissible gross vehicle
weight up to 50 tonnes. It can carry a crew of three along with eight passengers. This vehicle
is powered by 1,140 horsepower Liebherr engine and has a top speed of 70 km/h.
It is a complete family of vehicles that utilises a common drive module
and a flexible mission kit arrangement to allow any base vehicle to be configured as an IFV,
an armoured personnel carrier, a command vehicle, a recovery vehicle
or an ambulance. Changing from one configuration to another can occur within eight hours. This
system provides significant total lifecycle cost savings due to base vehicle commonality, allowing
users to adjust force structures or develop new capabilities in an affordable and timely manner.
Considering its flexibility, the sub-systems of the Lynx KF41 are highly modular and adaptable.
This fighting vehicle features a digital backbone with a generic open architecture
that enables easy integration of new mission systems, while the entire survivability system
is modular and upgradable to allow the vehicle to cope with the highly adaptive threats
faced on the battlefield. Different survivability kits are available for peacekeeping situations,
counter-insurgency operations in urban terrain, and mounted combat against a peer.
Due to these reasons, it can be said that no other vehicle can adapt to
diverse environments across the full spectrum of operational challenges like the Lynx KF41 can.
In addition, the Lynx KF41 features the latest generation of propulsion technology
with Liebherr engine and a proven Renk transmission.
A flexible suspension system has been developed by Supashock, an Australian company.
It means that the Lynx can be configured to carry
various mission kits and survivability packages without compromising mobility.
When configured for mounted combat operations with the Lance 2.0 turret and a survivability
package suitable for peer-on-peer combat, the Lynx KF41 weighs approximately 44 tonnes.
The turret is also integrated with the new Wotan 35 electrically driven cannon,
which is designed to fire Rheinmetall’s 35x228mm ammunition family. It is also fitted with two
flexible mission pods on either side to allow for the installation of a variety of sub-systems.
The mission pod options include dual Rafael Spike LR2 anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), non-line of
sight strike loitering munitions, an electronic warfare package or unmanned aerial vehicle.
The Main Sensor Slaved Armament (MSSA), the secondary armament for the Lynx KF41 IFV,
offers 360° view for the vehicle crew.
The Lance 2.0 turret is the next generation of the in-service Lance
family and has been developed to improve its suitability for an IFV.
Lance 2.0 has various enhancements that provide a troop of Lynx KF41 vehicles with a very high level
of organic capability, thus allowing the troop to have a disproportionate effect on the battlefield.
The Lance 2.0 features enhanced protection for critical subsystems against kinetic and
fragmentation threats, improving system survivability during close combat.
Considering its variants, the Lynx family of tracked armoured vehicles is based around
two primary models, the KF31 and a slightly larger but considerably heavier KF41.
Both models can be configured for a variety of roles.
The KF31 first displayed at Eurosatory 2016, has a maximum permissible gross vehicle weight of 35
to 38 tonnes, is 7.22 meters long and can carry a crew of three plus six passengers.
Meanwhile the KF41 displayed for the first time at Eurosatory 2018.
For the information, in March 2019, Rheinmetall Defence has lodged a bid in response to the
Australian Army’s Land 400 Phase 3 Mounted Close Combat Capability Request for Tender
with its KF41 Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) fitted with the Lance turret.
Followed by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence request,
ordering 218 Lynx KF41 IFVs as part of a $2.43bn defence contract signed in September 2020.
Also, the American Rheinmetall Vehicles, a subsidiary of Rheinmetall Defence,
partnered with Textron Systems, deliver the KF41 vehicle for the US Army’s Optionally
Manned Fighting Vehicle programme in October 2020. Rheinmetall has also offered to set up a
production line in Greece for Lynx KF41 armoured fighting vehicles if the Hellenic Army selects
it as its replacement infantry fighting vehicle for the now aging M113s and BMP-1s.
The company also submitted the Lynx KF41 for the Army of the Czech Republic's program
to replace its current BVP-2, a Czech produced version of BMP-2. In March 2022,
the Iraqi government started negotiations in order to purchase Lynx IFVs for its military operations
and some other armed forces have also expressed their interests on this fighting vehicles too.
That’s all for today, thanks for watching and see you next time!