{"id":8901,"date":"2026-06-15T13:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/?p=8901"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:22:28","slug":"rheinmetall-unveils-caracal-6x6-air-assault-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/2026\/06\/15\/rheinmetall-unveils-caracal-6x6-air-assault-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"Rheinmetall unveils Caracal 6×6 air assault vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At Eurosatory 2026, Rheinmetall unveiled the Caracal 6×6 air assault vehicle for the first time, which is a further development of the existing Caracal 4×4. In addition to the chassis being extended to include an extra axle, the vehicle features a modular flatbed designed to facilitate the use and replacement of mission-specific modules.<\/p>\n\n

The highly mobile Caracal vehicle family is based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The Caracal 6×6 was developed in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and MAGNA International, based on the W464 chassis. Consequently, there is significant overlap with the Caracal 4×4 in terms of both maintenance and training.<\/p>\n\n

The Caracal 6×6 is designed for flexible airborne operations, with Rheinmetall seeing its modularity as a particular advantage. Quick-change modules are intended to enable, for example, drone defence, fire support and the transport of special forces.<\/p>\n

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\"Caracal
The Caracal 6×6 presented by Rheinmetall | Image: Rheinmetall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The new vehicle is characterised by a payload of 3.2 tonnes, which is two tonnes higher than that of the Caracal 4×4. Nevertheless, it can still be loaded onto the heavy-lift helicopters CH-47 Chinook and CH-53 used by the Bundeswehr. Furthermore, it can be transported internally in the A400M and externally by helicopter as an external load.<\/p>\n\n

In 2023, Germany and the Netherlands signed a framework agreement worth \u20ac1.9 billion for the Caracal air assault platform, under which 1,508 Caracal 4×4 vehicles have so far been ordered for Germany and 504 for the Netherlands \u2013 representing a total order value of \u20ac870 million.<\/p>\n\n

Under the existing framework contract, Rheinmetall is hoping to secure potential orders for the Caracal 6×6 in its crew transport and equipment transport variants.<\/p>\n\n

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Despite a significantly increased payload, the upgraded 6×6 version of the Caracal 4×4 remains modular and suited for airborne operations. Rheinmetall hopes this will lead to further orders under a contract with Germany and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[935],"tags":[411,322],"class_list":{"0":"post-8901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-defence-industry","8":"tag-caracal","9":"tag-rheinmetall"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8917,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8901\/revisions\/8917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deaidua.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}