Belgium Orders 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 Air-Defence Systems and Reforms the 51st Squadron on November 9; Deliveries From Late 2028, Drones the Main Threat
Belgium took two steps to rebuild its ground-based air defence on the morning of Monday, November 9, 2026, according to a Rheinmetall announcement and Belgian reporting compiled by EuropeSays. Rheinmetall announced a contract for 20 Skyranger 30 air defence systems, and at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Defence Minister Theo Francken brought a Cold War air defence squadron back to life.
Rheinmetall says the systems will sit on hooklift platforms and protect Belgian territory and critical infrastructure from fixed positions, as the short-range layer of a national air defence network Belgium calls Blue Dome, with drones as the main threat. According to Rheinmetall's press release of November 9, the package covers the 20 systems plus logistics support and is worth a sum in the mid three-digit million-euro range. Deliveries are scheduled to begin at the end of 2028. The wider Blue Dome programme comprises 10 NASAMS systems, 20 Skyranger 30 systems, 14 radars and 54 command vehicles.
The Skyranger 30 is an unmanned turret built around a 30 mm Oerlikon KCE revolver cannon, with its own search radar and optical tracker on board. Comments by Roman K?hne, CEO of Rheinmetall Air Defence, were carried in the company's November 9 press release.
The 51st Squadron, created in 1959, operated Nike-Hercules surface-to-air missiles during the Cold War and helped guard NATO airspace against the Soviet Union. On November 9 the unit was reformed after 37 years and given its old mission back: responsibility for Belgium's air defence. The squadron is based at Beauvechain for now and is to move to Ursel by 2032.
Source: Rheinmetall press release, November 9, 2026; squadron and programme details from Belga via DHnet, as compiled by EuropeSays, November 9, 2026.
来源链接： https://www.europesays.com/be/46616/
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Source: Rheinmetall
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 防空部队训练（资料图）。（Wikimedia Commons／公共领域）|Air defense troops in training (file photo). (Wikimedia Commons / public domain)
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