The shareholders of ARTEC GmbH have elected to set up a new subsidiary in the United Kingdom, ARTEC Boxer UK Ltd. The company will be a wholly owned subsidiary of ARTEC GmbH and assume responsibility for its operational activities in the UK. These include providing the British Army with service and maintenance support for the Boxer armoured transport vehicle. Furthermore, ARTEC Boxer UK Ltd. will pursue export orders. The company’s operational goals include growing its market share in the UK service sector as well as gaining ground in the global market for highly protected 8×8 vehicles. The agreement to create ARTEC Boxer UK Ltd was signed during the DSEI defence show in London.
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 governments participating in the Boxer programme have changed as the programme has developed. 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.
A distinctive and unique feature of the vehicle is its composition of a drive platform module and interchangeable mission modules which allow several configurations to meet different operational requirements. Other names in use or previously used for Boxer are GTK (Gepanzertes Transport-Kraftfahrzeug; armoured transport vehicle) Boxer and MRAV (Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle). Confirmed Boxer customers as of April 2022 are Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Australia and the UK. The Boxer has been produced and seen service in A0, A1 and A2 configurations. The UK Boxer will be of the A3 configuration. Australian deliveries are an A2/A3 hybrid.
The UK will procure Boxers in three/four (source dependent) main variants. These are the baseline protected mobility (PM) variant (MIV-PM), a command and control (MIV-CC), an ambulance (MIV-A), and a repair/recovery (MIV-REP) variant. In terms of numbers, 285 personnel-carrying variants are on order, divided into 85 infantry carriers, 60 engineer section vehicles, 62 recce/fire support vehicles, and 28 mortar carriers. Another 50 of the APC variants are to be configured as repair vehicles (MIV-REP) and these are dependent on source presented as the fourth variant. A total of 177 Boxer are ordered in the C4I configurations, again divided into 123 command-and-control (C2) and C2 utility vehicles, 19 observation post vehicles, 24 beyond-line-of-sight observation platforms, and 11 EW and SIGINT platforms. The remaining 61 are to be ambulances.
From left to right: James Cartlidge, MP, Britain’s minister of state for defence procurement;
Armin Papperger, chairman of the executive board of Rheinmetall AG; and, Ralf Ketzel, chairman of the board of management Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG
