Rheinmetall Reveals Mobile Smart Factory for Military Use
June 30, 2023
Rheinmetall, an OEM for military vehicles, has unveiled a groundbreaking solution for on-the-go production of spare parts for military vehicles. The Mobile Smart Factory (MSF), showcased at an event organized by the European Defence Agency, offers metal 3D printing and post-processing capabilities. Integrated into Rheinmetall’s IRIS digital ecosystem, the MSF consists of two 20-foot shipping containers: one as an office container and the other as a production container.
The office container houses an air-conditioned workstation, storage space, a polymer printer, and a handheld scanner for quality control. The production container is equipped with a Metrom P7000, a versatile 6-axis hybrid machine capable of wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) and CNC milling for on-site finishing and post-processing. This flexibility empowers Battle Damage Repair personnel with additional options for repairs and overhauls.
You can see the MSF below.
Mobile metal printing workshop for the military. (Image Credit: Rheinmetall)
The MSF can produce components with a maximum size of 700 mm in diameter and 450 mm in height, utilizing weldable wires and polymers. What sets the Mobile Smart Factory apart is its integration into Rheinmetall’s IRIS platform. IRIS ensures secure data exchange and lifelong product monitoring of the printed parts, including quality assurance. IRISwork provides operators and maintenance personnel with access to technical documentation and spare parts catalogs, while IRISfleet acts as a fleet management tool, recording the installation of specific printed parts on vehicles and storing relevant information in a digital product passport.
With the cloud-enabled IRIS platform, armed forces and the defense industry can establish a secure network, integrating partners and enabling rapidly deployable additive capabilities for the modern battlefield. Rheinmetall’s Mobile Smart Factory represents a significant advancement in mobile spare parts production, facilitating efficient repairs and maintenance of military vehicles in the field.
“Budanov gave German ARD an exclusive interview, I briefly summarize the important takes here
Personally, he thinks a Ukrainian offensive this year is possible
Everyone is working on the topic of destroying the Crimean Bridge (“Let’s see if it still stands at the end of the year”)
It is questionable how effective Taurus would be on the Crimean Bridge, but it would, of course, make life easier
The EU can replace the no longer forthcoming military aid from the US
Most important military aid currently: Artillery systems and ammunition (especially for artillery)
After the Czech initiative, there is right now no additional ammunition available at the front (so right now no improvement in the supply of ammunition)
He is sure that no Ukrainian official had anything to do with the blowing up of the NS1 & NS2 pipelines and no such orders were given to any authorities
He supports the Pope’s proposal to exchange all of Ukraine’s and Russia’s POWs immediately. It is only work to convince Russia.
At one point, almost all POWs were close to being exchanged (didn’t happen and Russia is currently not interested in doing so)
Turkey is no longer playing a more active role in the exchange of POWs. The main role is now played by Ukraine, together with “our friends of the UAE”.
Prediction: Russia will move somewhere closer to Chasiv Yar and move towards the city of Pokrovsk, but nothing will change dramatically
Nothing will happen in the next two months. Actions will start at the end of May / beginning of June”
How do those sorts of things go realistically? Does launching rockets from a truck just result in the truck flipping with the rocket going nowhere useful or is there substantially less recoil on rockets compared to more traditional munitions making it somewhat of a useful weapon?
A view of the city of Kharkiv during the blackout on March 25, 2024. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The recent escalation of Russian strikes against Kharkiv aims to turn the city into a “grey zone,” uninhabitable for civilians, The Economist wrote on April 7, citing undisclosed Ukrainian military sources.
Russia recently intensified attacks against Ukraine’s second-largest city with the use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones, reportedly destroying almost all of its energy infrastructure.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told The Economist that his city has no intention of giving up. He pointed out that Kharkiv had already gone through a worse situation at the start of the full-scale war when only 300,000 residents of the population of 2 million remained in the city.
“How can you make a city like this a grey zone? People won’t leave, because they have already left, then returned. They have been tortured enough already,” Terekhov said.
The mayor said that the authorities managed to power up the city without working stations or transformers but did not reveal how exactly for security reasons.
The protection of the sky against Russian attacks is increasingly difficult as U.S. aid, a key source of air defense ammunition, has been stuck in Congress for months. Kyiv has appealed to its partners both for further air defense supplies and energy equipment to weather the intensifying attacks.
While Russia’s exact goals for Kharkiv remain unknown, Ukrainian officials said that a full-scale military offensive is unlikely in the near future. President Volodymyr Zelensky nevertheless said that “Kharkiv is protected” in such an eventuality.
RBU-6000 Smerch-2 213 mm caliber Soviet anti-submarine rocket launcher mounted on Ural-4320 truck chassis. (Picture source Video footage Social Network)
We have no footage of firing from truck mounts but you would expect major stability issues and out of the three, trucks are definitely the less stable platform. Firing axially along the length of the vehicle would give less recoil sway but firing abeam a truck would induce chassis sway, greatly reducing accuracy. As they are a very short-range, inaccurate area-effect weapon to begin with, this is not really a major issue.
Imagine being a kid on a farm waving a flag at gunships passing overhead to the front then one day they land to give you a gift. Cool.
(Yes, I am a sucker for these types of stories.)
