Boxers for the British Army
The first serial Boxer armored personnel carriers purchased under the Mechanized Infantry Vehicle program will go to the British Army units in 2023.
On November 5, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced that the British Army will receive more than 500 Boxer wheeled armored personnel carriers, which will be provided by the Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land joint venture as part of the Mechanized Infantry Vehicle program. This announcement can be seen as the beginning of the end of a very long and extremely bumpy road that the British Army and the European GTK/MRAV transporter, known today as the Boxer, are going together, apart and back together again.
The history of the creation of Boxer is extremely complex and long, so now we will only recall its most important moments. We should go back to 1993, when the German and French defense ministries announced the start of work on a joint armored personnel carrier. Over time, the UK joined the program.
Bumpy road…
In 1996, the European organization OCCAR (French: Organization conjointe de coopération en matière d'armement, Organization for United Armaments Cooperation) was created, which initially included: Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy. OCCAR was supposed to promote international industrial defense cooperation in Europe. Two years later, the ARTEC (Armored Vehicle Technology) consortium, which included Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, MAK, GKN and GIAT, was selected to implement the wheeled armored personnel carrier program for the French, German and British ground forces. Back in 1999, France and GIAT (now Nexter) withdrew from a consortium to develop their own VBCI machine, as the British-German concept proved to be incompatible with the requirements set by the Armée de Terre. In the same year, Germany and Great Britain signed a contract according to which four GTK / MRAV (Gepanzertes Transport-Kraftfahrzeug / Multirole Armored Vehicle) prototypes were ordered for the Bundeswehr and the British Army (the contract value was 70 million pounds). In February 2001, the Netherlands joined the consortium and Stork PWV BV (which in 2008 became the property of the Rheinmetall group and became part of Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles as RMMV Netherland), for which four prototypes were also ordered. The first of them - PT1 - was presented on December 12, 2002 in Munich. After the demonstration of the second PT2 in 2003, the car was named Boxer. At that time, it was planned to produce at least 200 cars for each of the participants in the program, starting in 2004.
However, in 2003, the British refused to participate in the ARTEC consortium (currently formed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles) due to the too complex adaptation of the GTK / MRAV / PWV (Gepanzerte Transport-Kraftfahrzeug, respectively: , Multirole Armored Vehicle and Pantserwielvoertuig ) conveyor according to British requirements, incl. transport on board the C-130 aircraft. The British Army focused on the FRES (Future Rapid Effect System) program. The project was continued by the Germans and the Dutch. Prolonged prototype testing resulted in the first vehicle being handed over to a user in 2009, five years late. It turned out that the ARTEC consortium did a good job with the Boxers. So far, the Bundeswehr has ordered 403 vehicles (and this may not be the end, since Berlin identified the need for 2012 vehicles in 684), and the Koninklijke Landmacht - 200. Over time, Boxer was purchased by Australia (WiT 4/2018; 211 vehicles) and Lithuania ( WiT 7/2019; 91 vehicles), and also selected Slovenia (a contract for from 48 to 136 vehicles is possible, although according to the Slovenian Defense White Paper of March of this year, the end of the purchase is not known exactly), probably Algeria (in May of this year in The media reported on the possible launch of licensed production of Boxer in Algeria, and in October, photos from tests in this country were published - production will begin by the end of 2020) and ... Albion.
British by birth?
The British did not succeed in the FRES program. Within its framework, two families of vehicles were to be created: FRES UV (Utility Vehicle) and FRES SV (Scout Vehicle). The financial problems of the UK Department of Defense, associated with participation in foreign missions and the global economic crisis, led to a revision of the program - although in March 2010 the Scout SV supplier (ASCOD 2, manufactured by General Dynamics European Land Systems) was selected. , out of the 589 machines required at that time (and taking into account the need for 1010 machines of both families), only 3000 machines will be built. Prior to this, FRES UV was already a dead program. In June 2007, three organizations presented their proposals for a new wheeled transporter for the British Army: ARTEC (Boxer), GDUK (Piranha V) and Nexter (VBCI). None of the machines met the requirements, but the then Secretary of State for Defense Equipment and Support, Paul Drayson, assured that it was possible to adapt each to traditionally specific British needs. The verdict was set for November 2007, but the decision was delayed for six months. In May 2008, GDUK with the Piranha V transporter was selected as the winner. General Dynamics UK didn't enjoy it for too long, as the program was canceled in December 2008 due to a budget crisis. A few years later, when the financial situation in the UK improved, the topic of purchasing a wheeled conveyor returned. In February 2014, several VBCIs were provided by France for trials. The purchase, however, did not take place, and in 2015 the Scout UV program was officially renamed (and thus relaunched) as MIV (Mechanized Infantry Vehicle). There were speculations about the possibility of acquiring various cars: Patria AMV, GDELS Piranha V, Nexter VBCI, etc. However, Boxer was chosen.
