Rheinmetall Pushes Back on Pistorius Delivery Criticism While Lining Up Kraken for Euronaval

Rheinmetall is refusing to shoulder sole blame for late arms deliveries, pointing instead to decisions taken by its own customer in Berlin. The pushback, reported by Welt, lands as investors shift their focus from the size of the order book to the reliability of its execution — full order books alone do not guarantee on-time handovers.

A chassis swap and the Skyranger timetable

At the heart of the dispute is the Skyranger air-defence system. Rheinmetall says the Bundeswehr opted in February 2025 for the not-yet-fully-developed B0 mission module instead of the Boxer chassis specified in the contract, drawing a direct line between that customer choice and the delivery delay. The company also stresses the buyer's duty to cooperate, arguing that responsibility for keeping a project on track does not rest with industry alone.

Under Rheinmetall's schedule, the B0 module is due to enter industrial trials in January 2027, with official testing set for the third quarter of 2027. Serial deliveries on the company's own risk are planned for that same quarter. The distinction matters for shareholders: trials and planned shipments are separate steps, so an announced delivery start does not mean the outstanding tests have already been passed.

Proof of capability remains another open item. A live test against Ukrainian drone pilots in Sweden came back unsatisfactory by the company's own account, and a demonstration firing is pencilled in for April 2027.

Shared blame on the heavy weapons carrier

On the Schwerer Waffenträger, Rheinmetall concedes responsibility is split. The Bundeswehr ordered 123 vehicles for EUR 2.7 billion, a project that illustrates the economic weight of the delivery-capability debate. Production progress is not the only factor — the timely finalisation of equipment specifications also played a part, making coordination between buyer and manufacturer a variable in the delivery schedule itself.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius criticised the late delivery of eight vehicles in July. Rheinmetall says those have now been handed over in full, and that the final equipment list only arrived in May, although it had been due in September 2025.

Two projects, two different stages

The two programmes sit at different points on the timeline: on the heavy weapons carrier, the criticised deliveries are reported complete, while the Skyranger still faces testing and verification. They cannot be lumped together as a single delivery problem. For the stock, new orders count for little without dependable execution — capacity expansion, punctual handovers and coordination with public buyers will determine how durable the growth story is. The scheduled Skyranger tests are the next concrete checkpoint.

Kraken heads to Paris with production already running

Separately, Rheinmetall has announced its appearance at the Euronaval trade fair in Paris, putting its naval business in the spotlight. The Kraken K3 is more than a product unveiling: according to the company, the system is already in series production in Hamburg, setting the presentation apart from a pure concept showcase.

The Defense News reports an initial production capacity of roughly 200 units a year, expandable depending on demand. That figure describes capacity planning, not a confirmed annual delivery volume. The distinction is central to the investment case — running series production shows how far manufacturing has come, while how fully Rheinmetall can utilise it depends on demand. Scalability offers headroom, but explicitly on that condition.

A wider naval portfolio on show

Alongside Kraken, Rheinmetall is exhibiting the Millennium gun system, which operates independently of the ship's data infrastructure, and the MASS Nova decoy system, which offers a variable launch angle and faster firing. The Asteria sea mines round out the display: deployable from surface ships, transport aircraft and submarines, they can be steered remotely via a bidirectional acoustic link. The FV-014, also announced, is quoted with an operational range of up to 100 kilometres and a flight time of around 70 minutes, according to The Defense News. The GMF 140 completes the line-up.

For investors, the most tangible takeaway from Euronaval is Kraken's already-running series production; the other systems demonstrate the breadth of the naval portfolio. The next confirmed date is Euronaval in early November. Kraken's commercial significance will be measured by how much demand actually fills the planned manufacturing capacity — production readiness and possible scaling are two separate steps, and that distinction matters more to the fair's assessment than the number of systems on display.