Last month Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) Integration & Test team returned from Kassel, Germany after 2 months training with RBSL in the assembly of Boxer. The team were busy learning the different parts of the Boxer build process and supporting RLS in completing and testing two Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) prototypes. Following a well-deserved Christmas break with their families, they are now looking forward to the next stage of #training when RBSL will welcome German colleagues to Telford to close any skills gaps and build on competencies and working relationships. Following an announcement on 31 March 2018 by the UK government that it was re-joining the Boxer programme, the UK government announced on 3 April that Boxer had been selected by the British Army to meet its Mechanised Infantry Vehicle requirement. On 19 July the UK MoD disclosed its intent to order between 400 and 600 Boxers with options for a further 900, leading to a potential maximum procurement of 1500 vehicles.
In January 2019 Rheinmetall announced that subject to government approvals the company would buy a 55% share of UK-based BAE Systems’ land business for £28.6m. The joint venture (JV) is called Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) and is headquartered at BAE’s existing facility in Telford, Shropshire. On 5 November 2019, it was announced that a £2.3 billion deal for Boxer had been signed. There will be four variants, for a total of 523 units. The UK will procure Boxer 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. MIV-REP and MIV-REC (REC – recovery) are understood to have been combined into a repair and recovery vehicle retaining the MIV-REP designation.
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 for equipment support 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. A further 100 with no variant breakdown were announced in April 2022, bringing overall totals to 623.
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.
