General Dynamics and Rheinmetall Defence Form Tank Ammunition Joint Venture Company

New ven­ture named Defense Muni­tions Inter­na­tion­al, LLC (DMI)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. / Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­many — Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Ord­nance and Tac­ti­cal Sys­tems, a busi­ness unit of Gen­er­al Dynam­ics (NYSE: GD), and Rhein­metall Defence of Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­many, have formed a tank ammu­ni­tion joint ven­ture com­pa­ny named Defense Muni­tions Inter­na­tion­al, LLC (DMI). The new com­pa­ny will devel­op and mar­ket new and exist­ing 120mm kinet­ic ener­gy and mul­ti-pur­pose car­tridges for the U.S. and inter­na­tion­al tank ammu­ni­tion markets. 

DMI com­bines the part­ners’ full range of devel­op­ment, pro­duc­tion and sales activ­i­ties of 120mm tac­ti­cal ammu­ni­tion for main bat­tle tanks. By com­bin­ing their activ­i­ties in DMI, the two part­ners aim to broad­en their glob­al mar­ket access, expand pro­duc­tion effi­cien­cies and selec­tive­ly engage in joint devel­op­ment work. Select car­tridge types and 120mm prac­tice ammu­ni­tion will not be part of this joint ven­ture arrangement. 

This for­ward-look­ing joint ven­ture is the cul­mi­na­tion of the long­stand­ing part­ner­ship between Gen­er­al Dynam­ics and Rhein­metall Defence. For over a decade the two com­pa­nies have worked togeth­er on numer­ous 120mm ammu­ni­tion projects, such as the devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion of the KEW-A1 and KEW-A2 advanced tung­sten kinet­ic ener­gy ammu­ni­tion for Abram’s users worldwide. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, Rhein­metall has field­ed the DM 63 tung­sten kinet­ic ener­gy round for the Ger­man Bun­deswehr and oth­er NATO users of Leop­ard tanks. Under the joint ven­ture, DMI will con­tin­ue these efforts while work­ing to add fur­ther improve­ments to the KEW fam­i­ly. The com­pa­ny will also devel­op and pro­duce advanced mul­ti-pur­pose ammu­ni­tion, lever­ag­ing the suc­cess of Rheinmetall’s DM 11 car­tridge, which was recent­ly field­ed by the Unit­ed States Marine Corps in Afghanistan. 

As Armin Pap­perg­er, mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Board of Rhein­metall AG, explains, “This pio­neer­ing joint ven­ture is a transat­lantic exten­sion of our cho­sen pol­i­cy of inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion. Thanks to DMI, we will be able to respond bet­ter to our glob­al cus­tomer base’s desire for an increased prod­uct port­fo­lio in the future as well as pro­vid­ing an expand­ed set of ser­vices. Our strate­gic rela­tion­ship with Gen­er­al Dynam­ics, a joint ven­ture for mar­ket­ing and pro­duc­ing tac­ti­cal tank ammu­ni­tion, is the log­i­cal out­come of over ten years of work­ing togeth­er suc­cess­ful­ly. By join­ing forces, we aim to take the lead in the glob­al mar­ket for tank ammunition.” 

Michael Wil­son, pres­i­dent of Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Ord­nance and Tac­ti­cal Sys­tems, said, “We are excit­ed about the cre­ation of this joint ven­ture with Rhein­metall. Our suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship over the last decade lays the foun­da­tion for this joint ven­ture. Under DMI, we will con­tin­ue to build upon that suc­cess with­in our exist­ing cus­tomer seg­ments while we expand our prod­uct offer­ings, includ­ing the Rhein­metall DM 11 mul­ti­pur­pose car­tridge, recent­ly field­ed by the Marines, which adds anoth­er pow­er­ful capa­bil­i­ty to the warfighter’s arsenal.” 

About Gen­er­al Dynam­ic Ord­nance and Tac­ti­cal Sys­tems
Gen­er­al Dynam­ics Ord­nance and Tac­ti­cal Sys­tems, a busi­ness unit of Gen­er­al Dynam­ics, is a world leader in the man­u­fac­ture of large, medi­um- and small-cal­iberdi­rect and indi­rect-fire muni­tions, mor­tar weapon sys­tems and com­po­nents, artillery pro­jec­tiles, as well as hybrid, extrud­ed and Ball Pow­der® propellants.The com­pa­ny also man­u­fac­tures pre­ci­sion met­al com­po­nents for mis­siles, rock­ets and bombs; pro­vides explo­sive load, assem­bly and pack ser­vices for a vari­ety of muni­tions, tac­ti­cal mis­sile and rock­et pro­grams; and designs and pro­duces shaped charge and pen­e­tra­tor war­heads. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able online at www.gd-ots.com.

About Rhein­metall Defence
Rhein­metall is one of the most trust­ed names in the inter­na­tion­al defence and secu­ri­ty tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor. With some 10,000 employ­ees, Rhein­metall Defence had sales in 2011 of around €2 bil­lion (US$2.6 bil­lion). In the weapons and muni­tions seg­ment, the Rhein­metall Group sup­plies a wide array of medi­um- and large-cal­i­bre prod­ucts. These range from the auto­mat­ic can­non for the Eurofight­er and medi­um-cal­i­bre guns for naval ves­sels and infantry fight­ing vehi­cles to main arma­ment for artillery sys­tems and main bat­tle tanks, includ­ing the accom­pa­ny­ing ammu­ni­tion. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able online at www.rheinmetall-defence.com.

Source:
Gen­er­al Dynamics