Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today visited Rheinmetall as the company striked the arc on the first weld of materials for the first Australian Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle entering production at Rheinmetall’s Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE) in Ipswich, Queensland. This vehicle will be the first to enter the production line together with initial vehicles from Germany currently being assembled at the site. Joined by Deputy Premier Dr Steven Miles, Australian Industry Partners including Bisalloy, Marand, Intellidesign and Rheinmetall’s 600 strong Queensland workforce, the start of production realises Rheinmetall’s goal to support Australia’s Defence Force and its allies with an industrial base in the region. Rheinmetall has commenced production of the second batch of Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles for the Australian Defence Force.
“This is a very proud day for Queensland’s defence manufacturing capabilities, as our association with Rheinmetall on the $5.2 billion LAND 400 Phase 2 project delivers locally built Boxer CRVs. Through the delivery of LAND 400 Phase 2 and its other projects, our partnership has already created 600 jobs at the Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence, which will be contributing more than $1 billion to the Queensland’s economy in its first 10 years of operation. The facility is now the most advanced military vehicle manufacturing facility in Australia. Our partnership’s continuing success provides long-term certainty to the current workforce, and greater opportunities through the entire supply chain which impacts many SMEs right across Queensland,” said Premier Palaszczuk.
In recognising the milestone, Nathan Poyner, Managing Director of Rheinmetall Defence Australia commented “Rheinmetall has delivered a first batch of 25 Boxer CRVs to Australia. These initial Boxers were built in Germany, and finalised at MILVEHCOE, joining the more than 2900 HX Trucks that were finalised and are today sustained from the facility. This striking of the arc event represents the first of 186 Boxer CRVs that will be built at MILVEHCOE, providing jobs, training and new opportunities for Australians working at Rheinmetall and in the more than 200 Australian Industry Partners across the nation. Rheinmetall has taken a long-term partnership approach to working in Australia, and we’re proud to be the largest provider of Military vehicles to the Australian Defence Force.”
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 (armoured vehicle technology) 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. Confirmed Boxer customers as of April 2022 are Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Australia and the UK. 211 vehicles on order by Australian Defence Force (ADF), with deliveries expected until 2026.[68] Vehicles to be delivered under the Land 400 Phase 2 programme.
