Romania has plans to purchase replacements for its copies of Soviet BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles designated MLI-84 and MLI-84M, and back in spring 2023 the country's defense department announced a plan to purchase 246 new armored vehicles in various variants including basic infantry fighting vehicles for €2.54 billion including maintenance and simulators.
At the same time, in November 2025, Western media citing Rheinmetall reported that during Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger's visit to Romania, agreements were reached on procurement of Lynx IFVs for the Romanian military including production localization.
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And in the concern's public presentation about development plans until 2030, among everything, one of the slides indicated plans to supply 298 Lynx KF41 armored vehicles to Romania, and media also reported that according to Papperger, a contract with Romania had supposedly already been signed.
However, as Defense Romania writes, the Romanian government denies the statement about signing an agreement with Rheinmetall for Lynx infantry fighting vehicles, which were supposed to be purchased under the SAFE [Security Action for Europe] European credit project.
They note as strange the fact that Papperger was the first to announce the contract, whereas this usually happens with participation of representatives of signatory states, not the manufacturer.
But at the same time, it's noted that German Lynx IFVs still remain in the game and are one of the options that Romania may ultimately purchase. However, whether the Romanians will choose it is questionable, because there's a nuance with production localization since a number of important components are already manufactured in different countries.
It's not excluded that Romania will ultimately receive an insignificant share of its own defense industry’s participation in production of these vehicles, which may not be excluded, will be limited to vehicle assembly. There are also concerns about likely cooperation with Hungary in the direction of technical maintenance.
It's emphasized that Lynx's competitors could be ASCOD from General Dynamics, especially since production of their Piranha 5 armored personnel carriers has already been organized in Romania. As well as Redback from South Korean Hanwha Aerospace.
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