The Wiesel 1 reconnaissance vehicle is fitted with the E6-II-A1 turret armed with a Rheinmetall 20 mm MK 20 Rh 202 dual-feed cannon. This is one of the three versions to be upgraded by FFG for the German Army, according to Rheinmetall Sources.
The German Ministry of Defence (MoD) in December 2019 awarded Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) a contract to upgrade 181 deployed Wiesel 1 Armoured Weapon Carrier (AWC) vehicles to extend their operational life to at least 2025.
In June 2017, following a competition, FFG was awarded a contract to build three prototypes of the upgraded Wiesel 1 AWC; these were completed in 2018 and handed over to the German Army for extensive troop trials.
FFG will receive batches of 25 Wiesel 1 AWCs without weapons, which will then be upgraded by FFG and returned to the German Army, which will fit government furnished equipment (GFE) such as radios and weapons.
All three deployed versions of the Wiesel are to be upgraded by the company: one fitted with the E6-II-A1 turret armed with the Rheinmetall 20 mm MK 20 Rh 202 dual-feed cannon, with one becoming an anti-tank version and one becoming a reconnaissance version, according to FFG.
The anti-tank version was originally fitted with a pedestal-mounted Raytheon TOW A1 anti-tank missile (ATM) launcher but this is to be replaced by the Eurospike MELLS ATM that is deployed by the German Army in several applications.
Jane’s International Defence Review
