Rheinmetall demonstrated its Next Generation (NG) Keiler armoured breaching vehicle at the German Armed Forces’ Bergen Training area for the first time in August 2024.
The platform is a highly protected vehicle designed to undertake mine clearance missions.
The Dusseldorf-based producer unveiled the NG variant only two months ago at the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition in Paris. It is set to replace its predecessor, the original Keiler; there are 24 units in the German Army inventory, acquired between 1997-98, according to GlobalData intelligence.
These platforms, more 25-years old, are deployed by the Army’s Corps of Engineers.
Using mine layers, engineers can also emplace minefields. In addition to these vehicles, however, the Corps also employ a wide range of commercial construction machinery and tool kits used, for example, to build roads, bridges and field fortifications.
Rheinmetall’s demonstration of the NG version took place in front of 100 invited guests representing forces from around the world.
Keiler NG features
In the first part of the demo, the NG created mine lanes in a field. The Pearson mine plough was used for this. The mine plough is over four metres (m) wide and can clear mines at a speed of up to 250m per minute. It can also promptly be replaced with a dozer blade – meaning the Keiler NG can also clear anti-tank obstacles, fill in trenches or create emplacements and prepared positions if required.
To secure units behind, the vehicle also uses a lane marking system to discern the created lanes for the following forces, even in limited visibility or at night.
In the second section, operators used the platform’s rocket-supported ‘Plofadder’ detonation cord system. Built by Rheinmetall Denel Munition, Polofadder can cut a breach 160m long and nine metres wide in mine fields and obstacles in a matter of minutes. Fired in overlapping bursts, its two Plofadder systems make it possible to overcome deep enemy mine barriers.
The vehicle features an integrated crane, which it uses to establish clearing readiness and to load and unload the Plofadder ammunition boxes.
Furthermore, the new platform is equipped with a magnetic signature duplicator that detonates second-generation mines well before the plough.
For self-protection, NG carries the ROSY rapid obscurant system and the Remotely Controlled Weapon Station Natter 12.7. The crew of the Keiler NG consists of two soldiers. The possibility of remote-controlled deployment is already taken into account in the system’s concept, as is the fitting of an active protection system and interfacing on the digitalised battlefield.
Mine clearance in Ukraine
After more than two years at war, Ukrainian land has been subjected to all forms of destruction, and the scale of Russian mines laid will continue to trouble the population long after the war.
Keiler NG may prove to be a useful platform given the proliferated use of the hidden weapon against Ukrainian people, civil and military alike.
To combat this reality, one of the numerous coalition groups established by the war-torn nation’s allies and partners focuses on supplying demining equipment. Set up by Lithuania in the first half of 2023, the coalition also includes Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
