On 29 January 2020, Finland and Latvia signed a Technical Arrangement on launching a development programme for sustained army mobility enhancement to which Patria is to deliver a 6×6 vehicle chassis platform. Finland’s Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen and Latvia’s Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks signed the document for the participating nations.In case this development leads to vehicle system procurement in the future, the resulting common system enhances mobility, cost-efficiency, interoperability and security of supply of the armies of the participating nations. This is cooperation between Finland and Latvia, but the following programme is also open for other countries by mutual consent of Finland and Latvia.
With the Letter of Intent signed in December, Estonia together with Latvia and Finland has shown interests for acquiring armoured vehicles for their national armed forces. Based on national and multinational tests and evaluations, the vehicle chassis platform chosen for the development in-progress is a Finnish-made Patria 6×6 armoured wheeled vehicle chassis platform that meets the set capability requirements. If the next phase of vehicle platform research and development is successful, the Latvia Armed Forces could receive the first new armored vehicles by 2021. Deliveries are expected to take place every year for about 10 years.
Patria 6×6 armoured wheeled vehicle is a new modular all-wheel drive combat vehicle developed by Finnish defence company Patria Land Systems. It is a successor to the Patria XA-series 6×6 Pasi armoured personnel carrier, combines all the best features of Patria’s XA and Patria AMV vehicles. The Patria 6×6 combat vehicle was launched at the Eurosatory 2018 international defence and security exhibition held in June 2018. The Patria 6×6 vehicle can accommodate up to three crew members and up to ten combat troops. The vehicle is cost effective added with low through-life costs, this together with truck-like user interface makes vehicle simply to operate, maintain and repair.
The Patria 6×6 combat vehicle can be armed with a variety of weapon systems including a 7.62mm machine gun, 105mm/120mm cannon, and 120mm Patria Nemo turreted, single-barrelled, remote-controlled mortar system. The vehicle can be optionally armed with a 0.50 M2 HB heavy machine gun installed on a roof-mounted protected weapon station. The modular ballistic protection system of the Patria 6×6 vehicle offers with the protection level STANAG level 4 (optional) there is enough payload for various vehicle variants and equipment. The armoured chassis of the vehicle also offers blast protection against mines and IEDs up to 10kg of TNT.
