Hungary Joins Elite Club by Developing, Producing Panthers and Gidrans

In the past few days, Hungary has taken a giant step towards ensuring its own defense sovereignty by sealing two military industry agreements. RABA Automotive's joint venture with the Turks will serially manufacture in Gyor the armored all-terrain combat vehicles of the Hungarian Armed Forces. And in Zalaegerszeg, alongside the production of the Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, tank development begins. With the start of the Panther EVO program, Hungary joins a select elite club, quite literally with top of the line technology.

Development, testing and future production will take place at the plant of Rheinmetall Hungary Zrt in Zalaegerszeg. Photo: Zalai Hirlap/Tibor Katona

Hungarian and German engineers will first construct a demonstrator vehicle, and full-scale production will start after testing.

The Panther program was first presented by Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a TikTok video. 

We are producing a Lynx, we are buying a Leopard, and we have joined in the development of the Panther. We’ll see which one comes out on top, research suggests that it might be the Panther,

he said in the video.

The pilot version of the Panther was presented at the inauguration of the Lynx factory in Zalaegerszeg in the summer (Source: Facebook/Hungarian Defense Forces)