Hungarian Lynx Vehicles to Equip a New Brigade

The Hungarian Defense Forces’ second unit is beginning the transition to Lynx armored infantry fighting vehicles, announced the Chief of the General Staff in a statement.

Colonel General Gábor Böröndi said that after the Kinizsi Pál 30th Armored Infantry Brigade in Hódmezővásárhely, southern Hungary, the first Lynxes will also arrive at the Bocskai István 11th Armored Infantry Brigade (Debrecen, eastern Hungary) in the last week of February.

“These combat vehicles herald the arrival of 21st-century digital warfare in Debrecen and offer an excellent opportunity for committed and disciplined young people who are interested in cutting-edge technology and want to serve their country,” the Chief of Staff pointed out in the statement.

The new combat vehicles will be stored at the Vay Ádám Training Base in Hajdúhadház, and

all of the Lynxes deployed with the brigade are manufactured in Hungary at the Zalaegerszeg factory of the German military industrial company Rheinmetall.

The statement indicated that the Lynx fleet of the Hódmezővásárhely garrison was still largely manufactured in Germany. “Domestic production strengthens the technological sovereignty of national defense,” emphasized the Chief of Staff.

Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt

They wrote that the Lynx KF41 HU is one of the most advanced infantry fighting vehicles in the world. It is equipped with state-of-the-art day and night surveillance equipment and a high-bandwidth communication system, that significantly improves battlefield situational awareness and cooperation capabilities.

Fact

The first regular customer for the German Rheinmetall’s Lynx KF41 was the Hungarian Defense Forces, with the first combat vehicle delivered at the end of 2022. Since then, new units have been arriving continuously, and the Hungarian forces are now also receiving vehicles from the factory in Zalaegerszeg (western Hungary).

The construction of the Zalaegerszeg Rheinmetall factory began in 2020. Production started in 2023, and the first “Hungarian” Lynx was rolled out a year later.

The most important piece of the Lynx’s remarkable main armament is the 30 mm automatic machine gun that can fire programmable ammunition with a range of up to 3,000 meters. The designers placed great emphasis on increased protection: the Lynx remains operational even if a 10-kilogram mine explodes under its floor armor.

Side protection is effective against the armor-piercing ammunition of heavy 14.5-millimeter machine guns and the fragments of 155-millimeter artillery shells that hit at a distance of more than 25 meters from the vehicle. The vehicles are to be equipped with an active protection system (APS) that neutralizes incoming threats by firing an explosive projectile at them.

A Rare Look Inside Lynx Armored Vehicle Production in Zalaegerszeg