American Rheinmetall to maintain damaged Bradleys near Ukrainian front lines

American Rheinmetall will put up forward-deployed maintenance sites in Poland to patch up Bradley Fighting Vehicles crippled by Ukrainian combat, the company has announced.

An 18-month, $31 million deal tasks the subsidiary of German-based company Rheinmetall AG with putting together sites for vehicle assessment and repairs near the front lines. The contract was handed down by the Michigan-based National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, a consortium angled toward boosting the domestic industrial base.

“It’s one thing to talk about keeping 100% of your vehicles operational in peacetime,” Mike Milner, who until yesterday was the vice president of business development and strategy at American Rheinmetall, told Inside Defense in an interview. “It’s another thing when you’re fighting for your country’s life and getting every vehicle out there is most important.”

Milner yesterday announced he was stepping into the role of CEO at American Rheinmetall Munitions. As he takes the helm of the munitions portfolio, Chris Haag, who previously served as senior director of business development for the company, will move into Milner’s previous role.

The maintenance sites will take in damaged Bradleys to potentially fix those that aren’t too far gone by plugging in parts from “dumpster diving” for things like electronic boxes from vehicles in long-term storage or from scrap parts salvaged from immobile Bradleys left on the battlefield, according to Milner.

Not all Bradleys will return to the action -- but the idea is, “If you gave me five vehicles, can I make three out of them?” he said.

American Rheinmetall will also have full access to the U.S. supply chain to order parts, according to Milner, as well as to repair and operator manuals needed to fix up the Bradleys, which are supplied to the Army by BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary.

The demonstration is designed to assess the effectiveness and scalability of the forward-deployed maintenance sites, with the focus being to “bridge the gap” between the battlefield and depot-level repairs, according to the company announcement.

“I don’t think they have that ability, really to repair forward, like we would probably do it as the U.S. Army,” Milner said of Ukraine. “So they don’t have those resources and they also don’t have the technical information on the system itself.”

Sites are expected to start triaging and taking on vehicle repairs in a year and a half -- although it’s not quite clear where in Poland they will be stationed yet.

The Army’s own sustainment of the Bradley has been far from stellar, as the last time the vehicle met the Army’s readiness standard -- a 90% mission capable rate -- was fiscal year 2015, according to the Government Accountability Office.

As of January, the U.S. military had provided Ukraine with more than 300 Bradleys and four Bradley Fire Support Team vehicles, according to a Ukraine aid fact sheet.