DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - The German government is buying 123 wheeled tanks from the Rheinmetall armaments group. The contract volume, including services, amounts to around 2.7 billion euros, the Düsseldorf-based company and the Bundeswehr Procurement Office announced on Thursday. Delivery is scheduled to begin in 2025 and continue until 2030. The "heavy infantry weapon carrier", as the vehicle type is called, is intended to replace the Wiesel mini-tank, which is used in infantry units for fire support.

The wheeled armored vehicles are mainly manufactured by a Rheinmetall subsidiary in Australia, where the German armaments group has a good 900 employees. The money comes from the Bundeswehr's special 100 billion euro budget, which was launched after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022./wdw/DP/mis