During Eurosatory 2026, Rheinmetall showcased its range of loitering munition warheads at its booth.
Rheinmetall presented two similar models: the RH12 and the RH22.
The RH12, also known by its full designation RH12 HEDP-40 NF1200, represents the first generation of Rheinmetall’s High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) warhead. It combines blast and fragmentation effects coupled with a potent shaped charge.
The designation breaks down as follows:
The “-40” refers to its mass class (the warhead weighs 3.8 kg, rounded up to 4 kg for classification purposes).
-“NF1200” indicates Natural Fragmentation, designed to produce over 1,200 effective fragments.
The shaped charge uses a simple copper liner, nothing revolutionary or “gucci”, but a reliable and cost-effective choice for mass production which is the goal of this warhead. It is capable of guaranteeing over 600 mm of RHA penetration. The steel casing also generates fragments intended to provide anti personal and anti material effect, being against light cover, body armor, soft skin vehicles up to lightly armored areas on some AFVs.
The warhead is filled with insensitive explosive PBXN-110, a powerful HMX-based composition. The choice was made to opt for a cast cure explosive compounds which greatly reduce the industrial footprint required to fill the warhead compared to pressed explosives, commonly used for anti tank warheads. Alternative explosives are available upon request like composition B or even TNT, which can be advantageous given current price increases and supply constraints for HMX and RDX. However, switching fillers will affect the stated penetration and fragmentation performance.
While the RH12 is the first-generation HEDP, Rheinmetall also unveiled its successor: the RH22.
Externally, the differences appear minimal. The overall shape remains nearly identical, though the mounting interface has been updated. The real advancements are internal and reflected in the new designation: RH22 HEDP-40 CF2500.
The shift from “NF1200” (Natural Fragmentation) to “CF2500” (Controlled Fragmentation) indicates a significant increase to over 2,500 effective fragments. This is achieved by scoring the internal walls of the warhead.
This internal scoring ensures a consistent number of fragments of the desired size and gives them a more aerodynamically efficient shape. As a result, they retain more energy over distance compared to naturally formed fragments.
Both warheads share a tapered shape toward the rear, which is a major advantage over the purely cylindrical warheads commonly seen on many loitering munitions, such as the UR-U-95-4 often used on Ukrainian Hornet strike drones.
A cylindrical shape concentrates fragment density perpendicular to the walls while leaving gaps in other areas. In contrast, a tapered design distributes fragments more evenly across the target area, similar to why modern fragmentation hand grenades use oval or spherical shapes. This geometry, coupled with their fragment counts gives the RH12 and RH22 lethal radius of over 10 meters and 15 meters, respectively.
Another strong feature of both those HEDP warheads is their modularity potential. Their current design gives the possibility to create a variant on their basis by removing the shaped charge liner and screwing a steel end cap making creating an basic HE-frag sharing the vast majority of the manufacture steps. This would increase the explosive mass by filling what was kept empty for the shape charge liner and also open the possibility of using blast enhanced explosive such as PBXN-109 but shouldn’t impact the center of gravity of the warhead which is a huge plus for adaptability into existing systems.
Creating a new charge on the basis on the basis of an already existing one significantly reduces development time but especially qualification and certification time compared to designing a new warhead from scratch.
Both the RH12 and RH22 are used on the HERO-120 and the FV-014 Raider.
The third warhead presented at Eurosatory 2026 was the RH11
As the full designation (RH11 HE-05 PF7700) suggests, this is a lightweight HE warhead (under 0.5 kg) using Preformed Fragmentation (PF) and designed to produce over 7,700 fragments.
This warhead follows a more premium and high end approach. It contains a large number of tungsten carbide fragments of varying sizes embedded in a polymer matrix. The sides use large quantities of 1.5 mm spheres, while the front end incorporates 150 larger 3 mm tungsten spheres. These forward-facing spheres increase direct penetration capability, making the warhead more effective against personnel inside light vehicles or trucks and enhancing its overall anti-materiel performance.
The RH11 is currently used on the HERO 30 short-range loitering munition.
An often overlooked aspect of these warheads, especially for observers focused on Ukrainian developments,is the considerable time and effort required to develop and certify munitions for Western and NATO customers. Peacetime safety standards are vastly stricter than those applied during wartime. Warheads must demonstrate long-term storability, use insensitive explosives, and undergo extensive testing to achieve their Insensitive Munitions rating. While these requirements significantly increase development time and cost, they are essential for the safety of our armed forces personnel, something which has been a constant issue for Ukrainian serviceman and led to many tragedies. Such issue recently came to light in western audience when on the 18th of March 2026 a USSOCOM operator was injured while troubleshooting a drone fitted with a training pyrotechnic cartridge.
Safety delays roll out, but safety is non negotiable.