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Further Reading

Weapon carrier weasel 1 MK/TOW
Waffenträger Wiesel 1 MK/TOW

The new mission profile of our armed forces has produced a rising requirement for lightweight, highly mobile vehicles offering a level of crew protection commensurate with the contemporary threat. Ideally suited to the operations of airmobile units, the Wiesel family of vehicles features flexibility, mobility and rapid availability in the area of operations. Transportable by helicopter, the Wiesel 1 and Wiesel 2 are extremely versatile vehicles which can be configured for a wide array of different missions, including reconnaissance, command and control, the evacuation of wounded personnel or the transport of ammunition.

In the mid 1970s, the Bundeswehr awarded MaK - now Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH - a contract to develop an airportable armoured transport vehicle to be known as the Wiesel ("weasel"). Serial production of the vehicle began in the early 1980s. The first version to be built was the MK 20, equipped with a Kuka-Wehrtechnik turret and armed with a 20 mm Rh 202 automatic cannon from Rheinmetall. Ultimately, the first Wiesel vehicles were transferred to the German Army's 1st Airmobile Division in 1990 in two versions: one equipped with the Rh 202, the other with the TOW antitank missile, giving it a night fighting capability.

In June 1994, Rheinmetall unveiled an advanced version of this airportable armoured vehicle, the Wiesel 2. Logistically almost identical to its predecessor, the Wiesel 2 comes in several new configurations, including an armoured personnel carrier version, a command post vehicle, a field ambulance and a platform vehicle for weapon systems, thus plugging a number of existing capabilities gaps. Featuring a greater payload capacity, the new vehicle can carry a full ton of cargo, while its roomier interior offers space for a crew of seven rather than three. The Wiesel 2 has a lower silhouette, produces less ground pressure (important in snow-covered or swampy terrain), and is equipped with a more powerful engine.

For the Germany Army's LeFlaSys light antiaircraft system, developed by the company known today as Rheinmetall Defence Electronics GmbH, the first weapons platform version of the Wiesel 2 was ordered in 1995. In 1997, Rheinmetall and the then MaK cooperated in developing a highly mobile "mortar track" based on the Wiesel 2. Its 120 mm recoiling mortar can be operated from inside the vehicle, which, just like the Wiesel 2, can be transported by helicopter.

The ambulance version of the Wiesel was first transferred to the Bundeswehr for field trials in November 1997, and certified as fieldworthy in 1999. In the years 2002 and 2003, twenty of these vehicles were manufactured for the Bundeswehr at Rheinmetall's Unterlüß plant.

In 1999, the Bundeswehr was also supplied with a Wiesel 2 command post vehicle for field trials. Three years later, Rheinmetall Landsysteme of Kiel supplied the Bundeswehr with the first Wiesel 2 combat engineer/reconnaissance vehicle, likewise intended for field trials. Equipped with an NBC protection system and a variety of combat engineer-specific equipment sets, it can carry out a diverse range of missions such as demolition operations and reconnoitring minefields and river crossing points. Like all members of the Wiesel 2 family it is fully airportable.

Under development since 1997, the latest version of the Wiesel 2 is the world's first digitized armoured vehicle. Steering, accelerating, braking and shifting gears are all possible without mechanical controls. The great advantage of this computer-supported vehicle is that it can operate in unmanned, autonomous mode in areas where it would be highly hazardous to deploy people.