Rheinmetall Wins the First G-CAP II Call-Off — EUR 250 Million for a 2,000-Bed Lithuania Camp
Bonn, 25 August 2026
Key points
- BAIUDBw, the Bundeswehr's infrastructure office, placed its first call-off under the G-CAP II SU framework with Rheinmetall on Tuesday — a modular camp for up to 2,000 soldiers in Lithuania
- Construction is valued at EUR 250 million and booked to the third quarter of 2026; Rheinmetall then runs the camp — facility management, catering, laundry — for a separate EUR 40 million a year; commissioning is set for mid-August 2027
- The camp serves Panzerbrigade 45, the heavy brigade Germany is permanently stationing at Rūdninkai and Rukla — 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian employees at completion, full operational capability targeted for end-2027
- Neither the site nor the operating-phase contract duration is disclosed in Tuesday's award text
- Lithuania is separately funding its own permanent Rūdninkai military town with a EUR 540 million EIB loan, whose first phase — 600 beds — is due by the end of 2026
Rheinmetall took its first order under the G-CAP II SU framework on Tuesday: EUR 250 million to build a 2,000-bed modular camp in Lithuania for Panzerbrigade 45, and roughly EUR 40 million a year to run it once built.
The Bundesamt für Infrastruktur, Umweltschutz und Dienstleistungen der Bundeswehr placed the call-off under the German Armed Forces Contractor Augmentation Program II – Stationäre Unterbringung, a framework concluded in 2021 for standardised static accommodation independent of climate or terrain. Rheinmetall acts as general contractor: planning, manufacture, transport and erection, followed by an operating phase covering facility management, catering and laundry. The awarding text frames the purchase as accommodation "provided by commercial service providers, so that Bundeswehr resources stay available for high-threat situations" — the rationale is personnel availability, not construction cost.
The camp is sized for well under half of Panzerbrigade 45's eventual strength. Lithuania is building the brigade's permanent housing itself at Rūdninkai, financed by a EUR 540 million European Investment Bank loan; the builder's own schedule puts the first phase, 600 beds, at the end of 2026, against a contract deadline in August 2027 — the same month Rheinmetall's camp is due to open. The remainder of the formation is quartered at Rukla. No published document yet states how long the operating-phase contract runs, which is the figure that would show whether the German camp is a bridge until Vilnius's own construction catches up or a permanent second half of the brigade's housing.
The commitment that recurs is the smaller number. EUR 250 million is a one-off construction cost; EUR 40 million a year against 2,000 beds is a line that competes annually with procurement for as long as the brigade stands, in a framework written for temporary deployments rather than a formation Berlin intends to keep in Lithuania indefinitely. As Signal No. 131 recorded, both governments have now committed capital to Rūdninkai on different instruments and different clocks, and neither has said what happens to the German lease once the Lithuanian town is finished.
