The defense contractors Rheinmetall and KNDS have been given permission to work more closely together on the development of a new battle tank for the German Armed Forces.

On Monday, the Federal Cartel Office approved the expansion of an existing joint venture between the two companies, as announced by the authority. As the client, the German Armed Forces has specific requirements that the companies can only meet by working together. "In our competitive assessment, we took into account that neither of the two companies would have been able to meet the requirements of this project on its own," explained Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt. "Even beyond the specific project, no impairment of competition is to be expected."

The new battle tank is intended as an interim solution until a main battle tank developed in a German-French partnership is delivered, probably in 2045. The joint venture between Rheinmetall and KNDS was originally founded to handle an order for the Puma infantry fighting vehicle.

(Report by Sabine Wollrab, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)