Belgium has ordered 20 Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 air defence systems in a contract worth several hundred million euros, as the country rebuilds the ground-based air defence it largely gave up at the end of the Cold War. Rheinmetall announced the deal on Monday 9 November 2026, saying deliveries will begin at the end of 2028.

The systems will be mounted on hooklift platforms and used for the stationary protection of Belgian territory and critical infrastructure, principally against drones and other low-flying threats. The contract value, which includes logistics support, is in the mid-three-digit million-euro range. Talks began in June 2025, less than 18 months before the contract was signed.

The Skyranger 30 is an unmanned turret built around a 30 mm Oerlikon KCE revolver cannon, with its own search radar and optical tracker. It is designed to intercept drones, loitering munitions and other aerial threats at short range, and it will be fully integrated into the command-and-control architecture of Belgium's Blue Dome programme, the layered national air defence network.

Belgium revives its Cold War air defence squadron

On the same day the contract was announced, Belgium brought back the 51st Squadron, an air defence unit that guarded NATO airspace with Nike Hercules missiles during the Cold War, after 37 years without it. Defence Minister Theo Francken reactivated the squadron at a ceremony at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, and the unit will once again be responsible for the country's ground-based air defence.

Under the Blue Dome plan, Belgium is acquiring 10 NASAMS missile systems, 20 Skyranger 30 guns, 14 modern radars and 54 command vehicles, all linked into a single network. The squadron will be based at Beauvechain air base for now and is due to move to Ursel in East Flanders by 2032. Belgium will lease a NASAMS system from 2027 to build an initial capability while it waits for its own systems, with the first of its own NASAMS expected at the end of next year.

Close work with the Netherlands

Rheinmetall said the procurement was carried out in close consultation with the Netherlands, Belgium's partner on air defence. The Netherlands operates the same Skyranger 30 system and is helping to train the new Belgian unit, and the two countries announced a broader joint air defence effort in the summer of 2026.

Roman Köhne, chief executive of Rheinmetall Air Defence, said the Skyranger 30 would make a decisive contribution to reliably safeguarding Belgian territory and critical infrastructure. Rheinmetall described the contract as the start of a new technological chapter in a partnership with the Belgian armed forces that has lasted 50 years.

The order comes as European governments step up spending on air defence after repeated drone incursions and the war in Ukraine. For Belgium, the Skyranger deal and the return of the 51st Squadron mark the most visible step yet in rebuilding a capability that was disbanded when the Cold War ended. Rheinmetall announced the contract in its 9 November press release, and Army Recognition reported the systems' role in protecting critical infrastructure.