Rheinmetall to Deliver 4 Skynex Air Defense Systems for Drone and Rocket Protection.

Rheinmetall will supply four complete Oerlikon Skynex air defense systems to an undisclosed international customer, the company announced on July 2, 2026, adding a gun-based short-range shield against drones, rockets, artillery, and mortars. The order matters because it delivers a full sensor-to-shooter network able to protect air bases, depots, ports, command sites, and critical infrastructure.

The package includes trucks, ammunition, training, spare parts, tools, and support equipment, with the first battery due 21 months after contract signature. This phased delivery gives the customer time to train crews, prepare maintenance, and integrate Skynex into a wider national air defense network as demand grows for layered protection against low-cost aerial threats.

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Rheinmetall will supply four Oerlikon Skynex air defense systems to an undisclosed customer, adding a networked 35 mm gun-based capability designed to counter drones, rockets, mortar rounds, and low-flying missiles (Picture source: Rheinmetall).

Rheinmetall Italia will act as prime contractor, while Rheinmetall Air Defence, Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles, and Rheinmetall Weapon and Munitions in Switzerland will support production and delivery. This division of work matters because Skynex is not only a 35 mm gun order: it combines command-and-control software, radar sensors, remote-controlled guns, ammunition programming equipment, trucks, and sustainment stocks. For the customer, the inclusion of ammunition and logistics in the same contract reduces the risk of receiving a system that cannot be kept at readiness because of missing training aids, spare parts, or qualified maintenance procedures.

A standard Skynex configuration is built around a control node using Rheinmetall’s Oerlikon Skymaster battle management system, at least one sensor such as the X-TAR3D tactical acquisition radar or Oerlikon Multi Sensor Unit, and up to four remote-controlled Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk3 air defense guns. The X-TAR3D provides a local three-dimensional air picture up to an instrumented range of 50 km and sends tracking data to the control node, where automatic threat evaluation supports allocation of targets to the guns. This architecture gives Skynex its main tactical value: search, classification, target handover, engagement, and kill assessment are distributed across the battery, so individual guns can engage assigned threats with their own radar tracker, TV camera, infrared camera, and laser rangefinder once the command node has built the local air picture.

The central armament is the Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk3, a remote-controlled 35 mm x 228 air defense gun designed for fixed, displaceable, or truck-mounted use. Rheinmetall lists an effective combat range of up to 4,000 m, 252 ready-to-fire rounds, a nominal rate of fire of 1,000 rounds per minute, and a rapid single-shot mode of 200 rounds per minute. The gun uses a 3,150 mm barrel, equivalent to 90 calibers, with a mean muzzle velocity of 1,050 m/s for AHEAD ammunition and 1,075 m/s for full-caliber rounds. The gun turret weighs 4,650 kg without ammunition and 5,100 kg with ammunition, has continuous 360-degree traverse, an elevation arc from -10 to +85 degrees, a traverse speed of 115 degrees per second, and an elevation speed of 57 degrees per second.

The fire-control chain is important because the weapon is not operated like a conventional anti-aircraft cannon. The Revolver Gun Mk3 can receive target data from 2D or 3D search radars or higher-level command systems, while its own X-band or Ku-band tracking radar has a 30 km instrumented range and a 50 Hz update rate. The electro-optical package includes an HD color CMOS TV camera, a cooled MWIR infrared camera with 640 x 512-pixel resolution, a laser rangefinder, and a video tracker for air and ground targets. In practice, this allows the gun to shift from networked cueing to local precision tracking inside the final engagement zone, limiting operator workload and reducing the time between detection, handover, and firing.

The decisive feature of the 35 mm armament is the AHEAD programmable airburst round. Rheinmetall’s baseline 35 mm x 228 AHEAD design carries a 500 g tungsten sub-projectile payload, has an effective range of up to 4,500 m, and uses a small opening charge of less than 1 g. The PMD062 air defense round contains 152 tungsten alloy sub-projectiles, each weighing 3.3 g, which are released just ahead of the target after the fuze is programmed at the muzzle with compensation for the measured velocity of each projectile. Rheinmetall also offers the PMD428 KETF variant for small, fast, agile targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles, with more than 600 sub-projectiles. This is why Skynex is relevant against drones: the gun does not need a direct hit on a small airframe, propeller, or guidance section; it creates a timed cone of dense fragments in the target’s flight path.

Operationally, Skynex should be assessed as an inner-layer air defense system, not as a substitute for medium- or long-range missile defenses. Its engagement range is measured in kilometers, so defended-area planning must account for radar horizon, terrain masking, line-of-sight to the target, ammunition expenditure, reload procedures, and the number of guns assigned to each asset. Its advantage is cost exchange and magazine depth in the final layer: a 35 mm programmable round is more suitable than a guided interceptor for many low-cost drones, rockets, and mortar rounds, while missiles can be held for aircraft, cruise missiles, or threats outside gun range. This logic is consistent with recent operational demand for point defense against Shahed-type drones and cruise missiles, particularly where air bases, logistics nodes, and critical infrastructure remain exposed to repeated attack.

The new order also shows that customers are moving toward layered short-range air defense mixes rather than relying only on missile launchers. Similar procurement interest has appeared in Europe and the Gulf, including planned Skynex acquisitions and public displays of the system at defense exhibitions. The pattern is clear: armed forces are seeking a lower-cost, high-readiness final defensive layer against drones, rockets, mortar rounds, and low-flying missiles, while preserving more expensive interceptors for targets that guns cannot reach. For Rheinmetall, the contract reinforces demand for 35 mm programmable ammunition and networked gun air defense; for the customer, the real measure of success will be ammunition stocks, trained crews, sensor integration, and the ability to keep each battery available under sustained attack.

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Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.