Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles HX81 tractor truck showing fully protected forward control cab and towing a semi-trailer carrying a Leopard 2 main battle tank with turret traversed to the rear. (Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles)
Rheinmetall's HX 8×8 trucks will replace Canada's ageing fleet of recovery vehicles by 2028, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) announced in a 14 November press release.
Rheinmetall Canada won two contracts for acquisition and support services, worth CAD374 million (USD266 million) and CAD30.4 million respectively. In addition to ancillary equipment, 85 enhanced recovery capability (ERC) vehicles and 24 armoured cabs will be delivered to Canada starting in 2027.
The contract is expected to be executed within one year, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada told Janes in a statement on 15 November. The expected production rate is unknown, the spokesperson said.
This contract represents the first HX 8×8 vehicle in the “heavy recovery vehicle” variant, Jan-Phillipp Weisswange, deputy head of public relations at Rheinmetall, told Janes on 15 November. ERC will be able to transport the “newer and heavier armoured and logistics vehicles that cannot be recovered by the current fleet”, according to the press release. Currently, Canada has Rheinmetall's Büffel armoured recovery vehicle (ARV) for main battle tanks and Wisent 2 Support Vehicle in its inventory.
While Australia and Norway have both purchased 10×10 recovery vehicles with the heavier integrated rotary crane, this is the first time a smaller HX truck has been integrated with the attachment produced by vehicle manufacturer Miller Industries. New Zealand and Singapore also have HX 8×8 trucks with cranes, but they are a size smaller than the ones that will be integrated on the Canadian cranes.
SX45 truck was also integrated with the heavier crane, Weisswange noted.
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