On the thirteenth, the opening ceremony of the facility located in Stockport where Wfel will manufacture part of the 8×8 Boxer armored vehicles for the British Army, according to the industrial plan we presented in December of last year.
Modernity occurred during the opening ceremony when a Boxer was introduced that was configured as a bridge launch vehicle, equipped with a 22-meter retractable bridge and the MLC50 class (according to the NATO classification Military payload rating It indicates the maximum weight the bridge supports, in this case 50 tons). Although the company did not report this alternative, the expert British consultant on terrestrial systems Nicholas Drummond made it known through his social networks. that happens The bridge throwing version is not covered by the British contract As these vehicles will be provided in personnel transport, leadership, specialized and field ambulance formations from 2023.
Last year, German company KMW, a member of ARTEC that manufactures the Boxer, contracted with its subsidiary WFEL to manufacture 8×8 Boxer armored hulls selected by the British Army for ten years. The so-called Boxer vehicle command unit They are built by WFEL, with attention to the assembly, integration and testing phase (Assembly, integration, and testing Or AIT) for nearly half of the 500 Boxer vehicles that will be supplied to the British Army under the 2019 agreement worth 2.3 billion pounds.
The ARTEC consortium, led by Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), has signed a contract through the European Procurement Agency OCCAR (Joint Organization for Arms Cooperation) with the British Ministry of Defense for the purchase of 500 armored vehicles boxer 8×8 – for his army, worth nearly 2,600 million euros. It is part of the UK program to acquire motorized infantry vehicles, and is subcontracted to half of each of the two German companies mentioned.
Full-scale production will start in Germany, but 90 percent will be in the UK, protecting and creating a large number of local jobs, mainly with Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) and KMW’s WFEL. As an intriguing fact, this request implied that country would return to a European defense program, as the UK was part of the project. boxer In its beginnings. (Jos M. Navarro Garca)
Photo: The Boxer with WFEL Bridge still installed (Twitter Nicholas Drummond)
The bridge was deployed to the ground at the manufacturer’s facilities (Twitter Nicholas Drummond)
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