Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence has announced the acquisition of 80 Command Liaison and Reconnaissance Vehicles (CLRV) for the Luxembourg Armed Forces, pending parliamentary budget law approval. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) will support Luxembourg with the acquisition and the CLRV fleet life-cycle-support requirements up to End-Of-Service-Life (EOSL). The CLRV will replace both the Protected Response Vehicle (PRV) fleet as well as the aging High-Mobility-Multipurpose-Wheeled-Vehicle (HMMWV/Humvees) fleet of the Grand Duchy Armed Forces.
The country currently operates US-made Humvees and German Dingo 2s. The Humvees unprotected gunner station is also a point of concern, and the vehicles are seen as obsolete. The ATF Dingo is a German heavily armored military MRAP infantry mobility vehicle based on a Unimog chassis with a V-hull design, produced by the company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW). The Dingo 2 is generally seen as protected enough to operate in areas like Mali and Afghanistan; however, its remote weapons station is seen as obsolete. Upgrading the Humvees is seen as a pointless endeavour, and upgrading the Dingo 2 would be prohibitively expensive and only ensure service until 2032.
The CLRV will feature high ballistic and mine protection. It will be equipped with a specific Remote Weapon Station and French SCORPION Programme based mission equipment to ensure interoperability with other partners. Across the Scorpion programme, France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces has ordered further Griffon and Jaguar vehicles from Nexter, Arquus and Thales. Belgium’s cabinet approved a plan to purchase 60 “Jaguar” and 417 “Griffon” vehicles for €1.1 billion.
Mission equipment commonality with Belgium and France will allow common obsolescence management and logistic synergies, thus reducing CLRV fleet support costs.
Jaguar is an armoured reconnaissance and combat vehicle which will replace in-service light tanks. The vehicle is equipped with the same CTA 40mm cannon that features on British AJAX and Warrior CSP vehicles and is made by a joint venture between BAE Systems and Nexter. Griffon is a multi-role vehicle designed to replace the in-service Véhicule de l’avant blindé (VAB), which comes in variants including ambulance, troop transporter, command post and artillery observation platform. Serval is a light 4-wheel variant of the VBMR, selected in November 2017 to replace the Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé from 2022.
The scope of NATO Support and Procurement Agency’s support to land systems has gradually expanded over the years and now it embraces the entire system life cycle management, from the initial acquisition support via production and in-service support to the phase-out and demilitarization stages. The NSPA provides significant economies of scale and scope, giving Nations greater buying power, sharing of non-recurring costs and access to highly skilled engineers, technicians, logisticians and procurement specialists. We are extremely grateful for the trust placed by our Host Nation, Luxembourg, to deliver this important project for their Armed Forces.
