On January 27, at the Army’s Multifunctional Experimental Center in Montelibretti, Rome, a ceremony was held to deliver the first four KF41 Lynx vehicles, the new infantry fighting vehicle that will form the backbone of Italian Army’s armored forces within a few years.
The arrival of these first four vehicles, produced by Rheinmetall according to Hungarian standards, the first operator of the KF41 Lynx, was preceded by a certain amount of anticipation: the special transport convoy carrying the four tracked vehicles with Italian camouflage and insignia had already been spotted on Italian highways in the days leading up to the ceremony. The delivery ceremony was in line with expectations and what the Lynx will represent for the future of the Army: a leap forward in quality, but also in quantity.
The delivery was attended by representatives of the institutions: Minister Guido Crosetto with Generals Luciano Portolano, Chief of Defense Staff, Carmine Masiello, Chief of Army Staff, Mauro D’Ubaldi, Deputy Secretary General of Defense, and Angelo Assorati, Director of Land Armaments.
Alongside the top management of Rheinmetall, which developed the KF41 Lynx, were representatives of Leonardo, which has set up a joint venture with the German company: LRMV, Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicle, aimed at developing and producing the Italian version of the Lynx and the future Italian MBT (Main Battle Tank), the KF51 Panther. Rheinmetall was represented by Alessandro Ercolani and Bjorn Bernhard, CEO of Italy and Head of the Vehicle System Europe Division. Leonardo was represented by CEO Roberto Cingolani. And the LRMV joint venture was represented by Laurent Sissmann and David Hoeder, CEO and Executive Chairman of LRMV.
Not just Dardo: the A2CS program
The KF41 (KF stands for Kettenfahrzeug, tracked vehicle) was presented by Rheinmetall at Eurosatory 2018, preceded two years earlier by the slightly smaller KF31 version, and was selected by the Hungarian army in 2020.
The Lynx immediately appeared to be the ideal vehicle to replace the IFVs currently in service with the Army, the VCC-80 Dardo. As was already highlighted during the Machiavelli Defense conference in June 2024, La forza terrestre e la sfida dell’innovazione, the Dardo IFVs, despite having been in service for just over twenty years, were not worthy of further development and upgrades in the new tactical-strategic context that had emerged from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, while for the Ariete MBTs, the C-2 upgrade could be carried out as an interim measure before the future arrival of the Panther.
The Lynx is not only the vehicle that will replace the Dardo infantry fighting vehicles, which entered service in 2002 but whose development dates back to the first half of the 1990s. The Lynx is in fact the cornerstone of the Army Armored Combat System (A2CS) program, which is set to revolutionize, rather than simply renew, Italian Army’s approach to its armored component.
The A2CS program, the successor to the AICS (Armored Infantry Combat System) launched in 2021, envisages five main lines for a total of 16 platforms derived from the Lynx platform.
Not only the IFV with a 30 mm turret gun, but also variants for artillery support. At Eurosatory in June, Rheinmetall presented a KF41 Lynx 120 Fire Support equipped with a HITFACT Mk II turret manufactured by Leonardo. Anti-aircraft variants, self-propelled mortar carriers, and turretless tracked vehicles such as command vehicles, ambulances, and ammunition transporters.
The sixteen “configurations” of the Lynx will cover a supply of 1,050 units. It should be noted that only 200 VCC-80 Dardo vehicles were produced, partly because the VCC-1 and VCC-2 Camillino, derivatives of the US M113, were kept in service as infantry transport vehicles, the last of which were withdrawn in 2020.
The first batch
The first four Lynx vehicles delivered to CEPOLISPE, to which a fifth will soon be added, are in the configuration used by the Hungarian army, equipped with a Rheinmetall Lance 2.0 turret with a 30 mm gun.
These vehicles will be followed by a batch of 16 Lynx vehicles with Leonardo HITFIST 30 Plus/X-GUN turrets under the UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement) qualification, which are scheduled to arrive in October 2026. The turret, on display at the CEPOLISPE event, will also be installed on these first five KF41s.
The first five Lynx will therefore serve to familiarize users with the new vehicle, albeit in a non-final version, in order to speed up its implementation.
Other features of the Italian Lynx
The first five Lynx delivered do not have the APS (Active Protection System), which provides active protection against anti-tank weapons such as the famous Israeli Trophy. The KF41 is equipped with the Rheinmetall StrikeShield system, but it is not known whether the Italian Lynx will be equipped with this system or with other APS systems currently under development.
As Eugenio Po writes in Rivista Italiana Difesa, there will be other new features for future Italian production vehicles. First of all, unmanned HITFIST turrets with a 30 mm X-Gun.
And then there is the engine. Instead of the Liebherr D976 six-cylinder in-line diesel, the Vector V8 from IDV, Iveco Defense Vehicles. The choice of a domestic engine is not only for reasons of self-sufficiency, but also due to the need to maximize the components shared with vehicles already in service. The Vector V8 is in fact installed on the Centauro II, an evolution of the Centauro, the first wheeled tank destroyer to enter service in 1991.
For years, this vehicle has been the flagship of the Italian land defense industry in terms of mobility and firepower. Even though the first version has now been decommissioned, according to some analysts, it was one of the key factors that enabled Ukrainian forces to force Russian forces that had entered the western part of the city of Kupjansk last December to retreat. The Centauro tanks, supplied to the 78th Separate Assault Air Regiment, were obviously used not as tank destroyers but as mobile artillery. And although Ukraine has only a small number of Centauro tanks, no losses have been confirmed to date.
KF41 and KF51
There is therefore a clear desire to ensure, as far as possible, the greatest possible commonality of components between the various families of vehicles. This applies to both the current Centauro II and the future KF51. Not only does this represent a small saving in terms of logistics and spare parts, but in an unfortunate war context, it is a detail that can become decisive.
The delivery of the KF41s is therefore a first fundamental step both for the renewal of the Italian Army’s vehicle fleet and for the prospects of the LRMV joint venture, which brings together the best of the Italian and German defense industries and, with the KF41, is demonstrating an extremely pragmatic approach to the needs of the armed forces, beyond the immediate industrial repercussions. This is a promising prospect for the future MBT KF51 Panther, both nationally and in terms of potential exports, in a world where the European defense industry must take into account the new competitors that have emerged over the last ten years.
Photo: By Lukas1325 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0