Cold War under the designation Pro-
tected Special Vehicle M8 (SW M8).
In 1963, better Mowag special pro-
tected vehicles were introduced by
the BGS and the state police. As a
replacement for the older special
wheeled armored vehicles 1 and 2,
the Thyssen-Maschinenbau (now
Rheinmetall Landsysteme) TM-170
was introduced as Sonderwagen 4
(SW 4) in 1984. The SW 4 was widely
used against violent demonstrations
and riots and in domestic counterter-
ror operations as well. The TM-170
was an armored car based on the Un-
imog chassis with a Mercedes-Benz
engine and is still in service today
within the Federal and state police.
However, the SW4 vehicle is con-
sidered obsolete now and no longer
meets current requirements at all.
The terrorist attacks in Paris and
London in particular have shown that
new armored tactical police vehicles
are urgently needed for the German
police forces. The threats of domes-
tic right-wing terrorism and Jihad-re-
lated attacks in Germany can also be
considered currently as high. This
also includes local heavily armed or-
ganized crime structures and lunatic
active shooters.
The contract for new armored ve-
hicles was awarded by the German
federal government on 15th of No-
vember 2021 with Rheinmetall as the
only participant of the tender. The
successors to the aged SW 4 are now
referred to as Sonderwagen 5 (SW 5).
Due to the fact that the state police
acquired the armored vehicles them-
selves in the past, two model groups
can be listed currently as SW 5.
Now, 45 new Rheinmetall SW 5 are
to be put into service by the feder-
al government for the state police
(Landespolizei), and 10 additional
vehicles for the federal police (Bun-
despolizei). In the first step, the
S T O R Y B Y : S O E R E N S U E N K L E R
P H O T O S : R H E I N M E T A L L , G E R M A N S T A T E P O L I C E ( N R W , S A X , B E R )
RHEINMETALL
SURVIVOR
5
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