ARTEC GmbH, on behalf of its parent companies Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall, has officially handed over the last of the Boxer armoured transport vehicles (GTK) ordered to date by the Bundeswehr to representatives of the Federal procurement agency (BAAINBw) and the Ministry of Defence. The contract for the 2nd batch, which was concluded in December 2015, comprised 131 GTK Boxers and was worth EUR 478 million. All the experience gained with modifications from the successful Afghanistan mission have been incorporated into this A2 version.
Despite the pandemic, which in some cases had a significant impact on delivery dates, the contractual deadlines were met thanks to the constructive, pragmatic and trusting cooperation between the industry and the customer. In total, the two parent companies of ARTEC GmbH have delivered 405 Boxer vehicles to the Bundeswehr. Among them were 72 Boxers in the ambulance variant, 65 command vehicles and 256 infantry group vehicles.
The combat upgrade commissioned by the Bundeswehr in 2017 provides for all Boxer vehicles, including those from the 1st batch, to be adapted to the A2 design standard. Most recently, in February 2021, the corresponding upgrade of a second batch of Boxer command vehicles to the A2 standard was contracted, so that from 2024 the entire fleet of a total of 65 German Boxer command vehicles will be available at the latest level.
The Boxer is a multirole armoured fighting vehicle designed by an international consortium to accomplish a number of operations through the use of installable mission modules. The Boxer vehicle is produced by the ARTEC GmbH industrial group, and the programme is being managed by OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation). ARTEC GmbH is based in Munich; its parent companies are Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH and Rheinmetall Military Vehicles GmbH on the German side, and Rheinmetall Defence Nederland B.V. for the Netherlands. Overall, Rheinmetall has a 64% stake in the joint venture.
