The Lithuanian government and Rheinmetall signed an agreement to build a factory to produce 155-mm artillery ammunition.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense announced this.

After several months of negotiations, on April 16, the Lithuanian government and the German company Rheinmetall signed a letter of intent to construct an ammunition plant in Lithuania.

The signed document sets out mutual obligations and intentions to start construction of the joint defense enterprise as soon as possible.

Officials have not yet disclosed details about the enterprise’s future and its design capacity.

The new facility is part of Rheinmetall’s long-term strategy, which plans to reach a production capacity of more than one million artillery rounds by 2027.

By the end of 2024, the company is to produce 700,000 rounds of ammunition. New production facilities in Germany, Ukraine, and Lithuania will help the company reach the target of one million shells.

Rheinmetall in Ukraine

Militarnyi previously reported that Rheinmetall plans to set up an ammunition plant in Ukraine, which will be modeled after a new German facility in Unterlüß.

The new Rheinmetall plant will have a full production cycle that will include all the necessary steps to produce a “complete shot”: projectile, detonator, explosive charge, and metal powder charge.

The full cycle involves the creation of a plant for the production of gunpowder and explosives that will be able to produce up to 1800-1900 tons of hexogen, a foundry for the production of artillery shells with a capacity of up to 200 thousand units per year.

It would take a year to build the facility. In about 12 months, the factory will have a capacity of about 50,000 shells per year, in the second year, the capacity will be 100,000 shells per year, and in the third year – 200,000 shells per year.

It is planned that the Ukrainian ammunition plant will also produce a six-figure number of artillery shells and metal powder charges for them.