Rheinmetall showcases Mission Master UGV with compact Skyranger

Rheinmetall's Mission Master CXT equipped with Oerlikon Skyranger 762 RWS showcased at DSEI 2025. (Janes/Tamiris Santos)

Rheinmetall has integrated one of its Mission Master CXT unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) with an Oerlikon Skyranger 762 remote weapon station (RWS) to provide a counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) capability.

Describing its C-UAS role as ultra short-range air defence (U-SHORAD), Rheinmetall said the Mission Master CXT Skyranger 762 can be operated by just one person and does not require extensive training. It uses a Teledyne FLIR radar and all-weather sensors and is armed with M134D Gatling machine guns in 7.62×51 mm NATO calibre.

Rheinmetall says the system is suitable for countering small UASs, such as first-person view systems notorious from combat in Ukraine, falling within NATO's Class I UAS. The company added that the Skymaster command-and-control (C2) suite enables connection with other Skyranger, Skynex, or Skyspotter air-defence systems.

Rheinmetall says the Mission Master CXT, part of Rheinmetall's UGV family of the same name, can carry 1,000 kg. The company said that the Mission Master CXT Skyranger 762 can also provide fire support in ground combat if needed.

Rheinmetall project management specialist Eric Diniz told Janes at the system's showcase at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 in September that the latest capability tests for the wider Mission Master platform were being carried out in a littoral region of Portugal during NATO's Exercise ‘REPMUS 25' (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems). Diniz added that despite another Mission Master reportedly being tested in October 2024, fitted with a U-SHORAD, DSEI 2025 was the first time the company showcased its intermediary variant, the CXT, with an air-defence system.