Rheinmetall showcases Gladius improvements

Rheinmetall's Gladius soldier system – with night-vision goggles, showing the smartphone end-user device and, at the bottom, Elitac's haptic navigation belt – displayed at DSEI 2025. (Giles Ebbutt)

Rheinmetall continues to evolve its Gladius soldier system, the basis of the German Army's Infantryman of the Future (Infanterist der Zukunft: IdZ), and showcased some of the developments at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London in September.

The Gladius system is now being offered, in common with many other dismounted soldier systems, with an Android smartphone in a ruggedised case as the standard end-user device (EUD), as opposed to the Getac MX50 tablet, which was the previous solution. This hosts Rheinmetall's TacNet battle management software, information from which such as waypoints and the location of friendly forces can be displayed in a head-mounted display.

On display was the Thea heads-up display from Greek company Theon, which was awarded a contract by Rheinmetall in February 2025 to supply Thea for the latest iteration of the IdZ programme. Thea provides the TacNet display from the EUD and also offers an augmented reality capability. It is connected with the rest of the soldier system via a smart gateway located on the back of the helmet. This can have either a wired or wireless connection according to customer preference.

Mathias Bickel, sales manager, Land C4I Systems in Rheinmetall Electronics, told Janes that the use of the smartphone also supports the increasing use of 5G communications for military purposes as well as tactical radios. He said that one non-NATO customer had used the smartphone's built-in 5G capability with their military 5G network during trials of the Gladius system.