KNDS and Leonardo Team Up on Wheeled 155mm Artillery as Italy Modernizes Army Firepower.

KNDS Deutschland and Italy’s Leonardo have signed a Letter of Intent to jointly develop a wheeled 155mm self-propelled artillery system for the Italian Army’s upcoming procurement program. The move reflects NATO-wide pressure to field mobile, automated artillery systems capable of surviving drone-saturated and counterbattery-intensive battlefields.

KNDS Group announced on December 16, 2025, that its German arm and Italy’s Leonardo signed a Letter of Intent in Amsterdam to co-develop a new mobile artillery system aimed at the Italian Army’s future requirements. The cooperation pairs KNDS’s Artillery Gun Module with an enhanced Leonardo protected wheeled vehicle, an approach designed to shorten development timelines while addressing lessons emerging from Ukraine’s high-intensity artillery fight.
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The KNDS Artillery Gun Module shown here illustrates the core 155 mm armament at the center of the KNDS and Leonardo cooperation, highlighting its fully automated design and modular architecture intended for integration on a Leonardo wheeled platform for the Italian Army's future mobile artillery system (Picture source: KNDS/GDELS).

In practical terms, the collaboration is a division of labor built around what each company already does best. KNDS brings the complete artillery upper, including the gun module, automation, and mission equipment, while Leonardo contributes the lower vehicle solution plus the electronics stack, C5I architecture, and counter-UAV related technologies flagged in the joint announcement. Local reporting in Italy indicates the La Spezia land systems hub, the historic former Oto Melara site, is expected to carry out elements of the industrial work, including final integration, a detail that matters for schedule realism and for Rome’s industrial return expectations.

For the Italian Army, the armament at the heart of the proposal is a wheeled self-propelled 155mm L52 howitzer intended for the service’s medium brigades. Italian defense reporting has repeatedly tied the requirement to replacing the FH70 155/39 towed howitzers still used by medium formations such as Pinerolo and Aosta, trading a gun line that must be emplaced and protected for a protected, high mobility shoot and scoot system better suited to rapid displacement under drone observation. The budget signals are already visible in Rome’s planning. The multi-year artillery program has been associated with an overall envelope of around €1.81 billion, with €637 million allocated for an initial phase and first funds expected from 2026, as part of the broader DPP-driven modernization push that also includes digitized command networks and upgrades to heavy forces, including the tracked PzH 2000 fleet.

While the press releases do not publish full specifications for the Italian-configured vehicle, the technical baseline of the KNDS gun module is well documented through the RCH 155 and AGM family. On the Boxer-based RCH 155 configuration, the unmanned Artillery Gun Module is designed for automated navigation and fire control, fully automated laying and loading with inductive fuse setting, and 360-degree engagement without support legs, enabling a very small crew model of two. Published performance figures include a rate of fire up to nine rounds per minute, an on-board capacity of 30 fused rounds with modular charges, and ranges up to 40 km with base bleed, 54 km with V LAP, and preparations to reach 70 km with VULCANO ammunition, an especially relevant point given Leonardo’s stake in the Vulcano guided 155mm family.

The timing is politically and industrially intriguing because Leonardo has not been standing still on sovereign artillery. Just weeks before the KNDS agreement, Leonardo showcased its fully automated 155/52 HITFIRE turret concept, described by Italian defense reporting as a compact, under 13 ton solution with maximum rates up to 10 rounds per minute, 42 km performance with base bleed and a 70 km class option using Vulcano, all while keeping ammunition automation and a reduced crew model central to survivability. In other words, the KNDS Leonardo LOI looks less like a single bet and more like a two-track posture. Offer Italy a mature European gun module path while continuing to mature a national turret that could later seed export variants.

If the project delivers a credible Italian configuration on schedule, the export shortlist writes itself. Switzerland has already selected an AGM-based solution for its next artillery system, and the United Kingdom has publicly identified the RCH 155 as the long term replacement path for its AS 90 fleet, underscoring a widening European appetite for highly automated wheeled 155/52 artillery. A Leonardo integrated variant, marketed with an Italian vehicle base and a strong C5I and counter UAV suite, could appeal to NATO armies modernizing medium brigades and to non-European customers seeking a protected wheeled howitzer that is not tied to a single chassis ecosystem, provided Italy becomes the launch customer and the industrial plan proves repeatable.