On January 24th, IDV (Iveco Defence Vehicles S.p.A.) and HORIBA MIRA have confirmed the formation of a new partnership to unite their complementary capabilities in the rapidly developing Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) market. IDV will become the majority shareholder and will contribute to move HORIBA MIRA’s UGV platforms and technology to the next step of development, accelerating the technology roadmap and aiming to fulfil the growing and advanced requirements of the UK MOD and its allies. The venture will merge twenty years of pioneering experience collected by HORIBA MIRA in the use of remote control, teleoperated and autonomous vehicle technology in the defence sector.
Based on its patented capability to navigate without GNSS, manage advanced off-road routing and self-identify and classify terrain and objects, when combined with IDV systems integration capability across a wide range of multi-terrain wheel or tracked platforms, the new partnership will develop state-of-the-art UGV solutions. With this move, IDV confirms its continuous focus on technological excellence and innovation to deliver the most advanced automotive and protection solutions to meet the evolving needs of military customers worldwide. This union of specialist technology leadership, design engineering, proven platforms and global production capability demonstrates our intent for the venture to take a market-leading position in the international UGV market. The business will remain headquartered at MIRA Technology Park in the UK.
IDV, a leading international defence player with over 85 years of experience in the development and manufacturing of a wide range of protected vehicles for military use, announces it has entered into an agreement to become the majority shareholder in MIRA UGV, HORIBA MIRA’s Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) division. The agreement combines IDV’s expertise as a manufacturer of defence vehicles with its technological know-how and global production capabilities, with HORIBA MIRA’s position as a sector-leading company in delivering state-of-the-art Uncrewed Ground Vehicle solutions. The agreement also provides capital and capability to move HORIBA MIRA’s UGV platforms and technology to the next stage of development and production.
The company headquarter is in Bolzano, Northern Italy, at the plant formerly owned by Lancia, a highly-regarded military vehicle manufacturer established in 1937 that became part of the Iveco Group in 1975. Iveco Defence Vehicles boasts an independent internal structure entirely dedicated to R&D located in Bolzano and Piacenza with full access to Iveco’s vast corporate engineering resources. Alongside the Engineering Department and prototyping workshop, the Bolzano facility houses all manufacturing, marketing and aftersales operations, while an additional facility based in Vittorio Veneto provides a centre of excellence for armour. Since 2012 the company has embraced the concept of World Class Manufacturing (or WCM), an integrated approach to achieving excellence through continuously improving all aspects of performance in all areas of the production system.
