D-LBO Operational Test at Munster — Industry Reports More Than 2,000 of Over 10,000 Vehicles Converted, Fewer Than Agreed
Munster, 12 October 2026
Key points
- Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, reviewed the operational test of D-LBO, the digitalisation of land-based operations, at Munster on 12 October, after about five weeks of testing and as live fire began with Leopard 2, Puma and Marder: "The D-LBO system works"
- "However, industry has not yet converted as many vehicles as we had agreed," he said; by industry's account, conversion has started at eight sites, ten further plants are in use, and more than 2,000 vehicles are done
- The problems named were a helmet headset whose interface failed, a relay for one vehicle that could not be delivered, the fault, Pistorius said, of neither industry nor the Bundeswehr, and the Marder's antenna feet
- Panzergrenadierbrigade 37 is to run on the system from 1 January 2027, Panzerbrigade 45 in Lithuania from 1 July 2027, and the whole 10th Panzer Division by the end of 2027; industry renewed its assurance on that date
Four months after a leaked ministry report graded it failing, the Bundeswehr's land-forces digitisation works in test, and the open question has moved from the system to the number of vehicles that carry it.
The vehicle-integration contract went to ArGe D-LBO, KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall, in December 2024: EUR 1.98 billion gross over six years, series integration of about 10,000 combat and support vehicles from mid-2025, complete by the end of 2030. In May the ministry counted more than 700 platforms converted, with conversion sites raised from two to seven plus work at industry partners, and placed the causes of delay partly with industry and partly with the Bundeswehr. In July industry assured the ministry that 2,700 vehicles would be fitted in 2026. The seventh contract amendment, for just under 32,000 more radios, cleared the budget committee in June, weeks after the leaked report on the aborted November test.
The division date is a compressed slice of a contract written to run to the end of 2030. Equipping the 10th Panzer Division by the end of 2027 asks for a fleet share three years ahead of the contract's own end date, and the nearer test is this year's number. On industry's figure, more than 2,000 vehicles were done by 12 October against July's promise of 2,700 for 2026: fewer than 700 to go in the last eleven weeks, after some 1,300 in the five months since May. Neither the minister nor the Bundeswehr gave a ministry count on 12 October. Signal No. 166 compared industry's figure with the ministry's May count; the year-end total, and whether Panzergrenadierbrigade 37 starts on the system on 1 January, will show whether the assurance holds.
Related · Bundeswehr land-forces digitisation
