British Army to receive more Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles
The British Prime Minister confirmed last week that Britain’s armed forces will receive additional Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles.
The British Army will receive more extra armoured Boxer vehicles, bolstering the program to a total of 623 as the UK deepens defense ties with Germany, the Prime Minister has announced on 8 April.
The British government, represented by the European procurement organization OCCAR, and ARTEC, a consortium of Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), have signed a contract extension to supply the British Army with an additional 100 Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles.
The contract encompasses three previously ordered variants of the Boxer: the infantry carrier, the command vehicle and the field ambulance.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “In these difficult times, our deep defence partnership offers reassurance to our people and the wider world, while also ensuring we are ready to respond to new threats.
“This joint programme will ensure our militaries have state-of-the-art equipment as the invasion of Ukraine shakes the very foundations of European peace and security, ” Boris Johnson added.
Chris Bushell, Director General Land at Defence, Equipment and Support said: “This contract extension is great news for the Boxer programme and committing to buying an extra 100 vehicles demonstrates our confidence in the programme and the benefits of the capability. Not only is this great news for the future of the British Army but it will also boost our commitment to investing in the UK’s defence industry and supply chains, meaning we can retain critical engineering and manufacturing skills in the UK.”
In issuing the order, the United Kingdom is exercising an option contained in the contract signed in 2019 for the Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) procurement project, which includes 523 Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles in several variants.
ARTEC will be supplying the vehicles to the UK via OCCAR, the intergovernmental Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation. The bulk of Boxer production will take place in Britain. Series production is currently getting underway in Germany, after which most of the Boxer vehicles already ordered will be produced in British factories of Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land and KMW subsidiary WFEL.
The additional vehicles just ordered will also be produced in both the UK and Germany. Here, the partners will be drawing on the knowledge and components of the established and expanding British supply chain, which already forms the basis of the first lot of 523 vehicles.