KNDS Promotes Boxer RCT30 Infantry Fighting Vehicle to Gulf Armies After Qatar Success.

At DIMDEX 2026 in Doha, KNDS and ARTEC presented the Boxer RCT30 infantry fighting vehicle, highlighting a wheeled 8x8 platform that delivers tracked-IFV-level firepower with a remote-controlled 30 mm turret and missile armament. The system reflects Gulf states’ growing focus on counter-drone defense, rapid mobility, and survivability against precision-guided threats.

At DIMDEX 2026 in Doha, KNDS and ARTEC are showcasing the Boxer RCT30 infantry fighting vehicle as a wheeled platform designed to deliver tracked-IFV-level firepower on an 8x8 chassis, a proposition that resonates strongly in the Gulf after recent battlefield lessons shaped by drones and precision fires. Presented at the Qatar National Convention Centre, the vehicle has drawn sustained attention for its remote-controlled turret, counter-UAV focus, and high-end lethality, with Army Recognition documenting the system through on-site imagery and detailed technical briefings gathered directly from the exhibition floor.
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Boxer RCT30’s stabilised remote turret combines a 30 mm airburst cannon, coaxial MG, and optional guided missiles for accurate on-the-move fire against armor, troops in cover, and low-flying threats (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The heart of the RCT30 is the PUMA-derived, fully stabilised, crewless turret integrating Rheinmetall’s MK30-2/ABM 30x173 mm automatic cannon with a dual-feed system that lets the gunner switch ammunition types instantly, without breaking track or changing firing posture. In controlled mode, the cannon is rated at 200 rounds per minute, with an optional higher burst mode referenced by Rheinmetall for demanding engagements. The turret’s airburst capability is not a marketing flourish: the ABM concept measures projectile velocity as it passes the muzzle and inductively programs the fuze to eject at a calculated point in space, making it particularly useful against troops in defilade, light cover, and small aerial targets that are otherwise inefficient to engage with point-detonating rounds. KNDS lists the secondary armament as a coaxial MG5, a 7.62x51 mm NATO machine gun family widely fielded in German service, providing the commander a lower-collateral option for suppressive fire and close defense.

For hard targets beyond cannon reach, KNDS specifies two turret-mounted guided missiles from the SPIKE LR family, giving the vehicle a true anti-armor and bunker-busting overmatch option from standoff positions. In practice, the operational relevance for Qatar is the combination of a 30 mm cannon effective out to roughly 3,000 m for direct fire with a missile envelope that, depending on variant, extends several kilometres farther, with the latest LR2 class advertised at 5.5 km for ground launch. The turret also supports hunter-killer functionality and modern optronic sights for 360-degree surveillance, allowing the commander to search and designate while the gunner prosecutes, a workflow that matters in cluttered urban environments and fast-moving desert engagements where seconds often decide who fires first.

Those weapons sit on a 38.5-ton class 8x8 with up to 600 kW engine power, road speed above 100 km/h, and a range cited by ARTEC above 1,000 km, metrics that reflect Qatar’s requirement to reposition forces rapidly between dispersed infrastructure nodes and potential border flashpoints. The protected volume is advertised at 14 m³ with a crew and dismount capacity of up to 10, so the platform is not merely a gun truck but a mechanised infantry system with enough internal space for mission equipment, extra drones, and electronic warfare payloads that Gulf operators increasingly treat as standard rather than optional.

Boxer RCT30 gives Qatar a credible combined-arms tool for escort, rapid reaction, and high-end deterrence in one package. The cannon’s airburst and elevation range support the emerging requirement to engage low-altitude aerial threats and loitering systems at short notice, while the missile option adds a decisive response to armor or fortified firing points without calling in air support. Survivability is the other side of that equation: the Boxer family is designed around a protected mission module, and the RCT30 pitch is increasingly tied to soft-kill defenses. MUSS, for example, is described as a multi-sensor, automated system that detects and warns of laser and missile threats and responds with jamming and multispectral smoke to break guidance chains, a useful layer in a region where precision-guided munitions and anti-tank guided missiles are no longer theoretical.

The RCT30’s armament matters to Qatar because it compresses several defence problems into a single, mobile solution: protecting critical national infrastructure, sustaining deterrence with a small force, and fielding a visible capability that signals readiness in a crowded neighbourhood. Qatar’s energy facilities, ports, and air bases are strategic targets in any regional crisis, and a wheeled IFV with long road range, on-the-move accurate fire, and organic counter-UAV potential can patrol, reinforce, and survive in ways that lighter internal security fleets cannot. In addition, Qatar has already begun receiving Boxer RCT30 vehicles, underscoring that this is not a brochure capability but an incoming operational fleet that can be tailored for local counter-drone needs. In Gulf terms, the message is simple: a compact army can still buy time, impose cost, and hold ground if its mechanised elements can see first, shoot first, and keep moving under modern aerial and precision threats.