The Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency (NDMA, Forsvarsbygg) has asked Swedish company MilDef to upgrade its fleet of M113 armored personnel carriers for $7.8 million (82 MSEK). This contract is a follow-up order on an existing program and a mid-life upgrade of armored vehicles in the M113 series. The new delivery consists of tactical IT from MilDef’s hardware portfolio, integrations, and other services. The order value of deliveries in 2022 are estimated to approximately $1.1 million (12 MSEK) and $6.7 million (70 MSEK) in 2023. MilDef will equip the vehicles with computers, displays and network infrastructure for Command and Control. Various variants of the M113 armored vehicles will be the focus for the deliveries in this program.
The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was developed and produced by the FMC Corporation. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe to replace the mechanized infantry’s M59 APCs from 1961. Eventually, the M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War and was used to break through heavy thickets in the midst of the jungle to attack and overrun enemy positions. The M113 was the first aluminum hull combat vehicle to be put into mass production. Much lighter than earlier similar vehicles, its aluminum armor was designed to be thick enough to protect the crew and passengers against small arms fire, but light enough that the vehicle was air transportable and moderately amphibious.
The Norwegian Armed Forces convert the existing M113s to the M113E3 configuration. The upgrade kits include powerpack, suspension, weld, air conditioning and hydraulic manifold. These upgrades will supplement 72 kits which the company provided to Norway between 2007 and 2009, and supplied by BAE Systems in the USA. BAE Systems’ suspension upgrades enable the vehicle to use rubber band tracks and provide passengers with a smoother ride. The company will also provide support to the Defence Logistics Organisation in Norway. The Norwegian armed forces installed the kits and test the completed vehicle upgrades at its facilities in country. BAE Systems’ work is anticipated to begin in early 2010 and complete in July 2011.
For more than 20 years, MilDef has developed, manufactured and sold rugged IT and special electronics, mainly to customers in the defense sector. MilDef Group serves a global market with world-leading tactical IT solutions. Laptops, servers, switches, routers, intelligent displays , software and integration services – the company custom-make military-grade IT products and systems, made to perform in the toughest conditions. The company was started in 1997, with its headquarters in Helsingborg, MilDef’s products are sold to more than 160 customers through MilDef’s subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Finland, United Kingdom, the United States, and through partner networks in more than 30 countries, predominantly within the EU. MilDef Group is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.