Interview with Lt.Gen. Hans-Otto Budde, Chief of Staff of the German Army

06:17 GMT, September 23, 2009 Initially planned as a bilateral cooperation programme between Germany and France in 1993, and continuing with the Netherlands after France left the programme in 2001, the Armoured Transport Vehicle (German: “Gepanzertes Transport-Kraftfahrzeug”, GTK) BOXER is a key asset in providing the German Army with a new level of mobility, survivability, multi-role capabilities, and interoperability. Particularly the categories of mobility, protection and survivability will be enhanced with the introduction of this platform to the army due to its innovative technologies. The BOXER is jointly being manufactured by the German companies Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall in cooperation with national and international partners within the ARTEC consortium. Germany has ordered 272 vehicles and the Dutch Armed Forces will receive 200 vehicles.

On the occasion of the upcoming hand-over ceremony for the first vehicle being delivered to the European programme agency OCCAR (European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation), held on 23 September 2009 in Munich (see: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/9997/), Lieutenant General Hans-Otto Budde, Chief of Staff of the German Army, spoke to the German magazine “Newsletter Verteidigung”, a media partner of defpro.com. We are pleased to present to you this interview which will be supplemented by additional information published in the course of the day at defpro.com.


Q: What importance does the introduction of the GTK Boxer into service have for the German Army and for troops deployed within the ISAF mission?

Lt.Gen. Hans-Otto Budde: The ISAF mission represents the benchmark for any significant procurement programmes of the Army. In times of limited budget resources, the operation relevance is the essential criteria. The point is to provide the Army’s soldiers with the assets which are required to accomplish their missions within the different mission requirements and the changing operational situations. The operation in Afghanistan currently is the most demanding mission of the Army. However, our considerations and actions have to go beyond this mission towards future requirements.

Within their scope of assignments, intervention and stabilisation, forces require modern and effective combat, command and control, support, and transport vehicles which meet the key requirements of effectiveness, protection, mobility and functionality. Furthermore, they need to have a guaranteed advancement potential for required adaptations in the future.

Our soldiers have to be able to prevail within the entire scope of possible missions and with as few casualties as possible. Considering the currently changing threat situation in Afghanistan, the BOXER will significantly contribute to improve the protection of our soldiers and their effectiveness during their missions. It complements the currently deployed EAGLE IV, DINGO 2 and FOX and completes the spectrum of armoured combat vehicles for our deployed troops.

The GTK will significantly improve our capabilities in the field of protected tactical mobility with, at the same time, a higher level of strategic mobility for the infantry and for command and control vehicles throughout all command levels up to the company level. This is what makes this vehicle important for all future operations of the Army.


Q: How will the introduction of the BOXER improve the capabilities of respective units of the Army and what will be its effect on future ground operations?

Budde: In the case of the BOXER, the German Army, together with the Armed Forces of the Netherlands, carries out an exceptional high-tech project in the field of military land systems which distinguishes itself by system-compatible mine protection and a very high level of ballistic protection.

High mobility and protected transport space for up to ten soldiers make it a “mother ship” for the infantry soldiers, which are equipped with the future infantry soldier solution “Infanterist der Zukunft”. Tactical flexibility and protection enable the infantry to unfold its entire scope of capabilities. The combination of modularity, mobility, multi-role capability, enhancement potential and protection is a unique and indispensable asset to carrying out the tasks throughout the entire scope of missions of the Army and of our involved partners – today as well as in the type of future operations which, so far, can be conceived.


Q: The vehicle will also be procured in a medical version. Why does the medical service of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) require such a heavily armoured medical vehicle?

Budde: Today’s missions, as well as future missions for the Army, will be characterised by the fact that our opponents often do not respect the special protection which wounded soldiers are granted in accordance with the Hague Convention. In Afghanistan, not only German medical personnel and their vehicles have purposely been targeted by insurgents, but also those of our allies. This fact also has to be taken into account in the future equipment used by our medical personnel.

Intervention forces of the Bundeswehr, as well as sections of the stabilisation forces, will receive a core of armoured force to be able to prevail by robust and protected means against militarily organised opponents and against asymmetrically fighting forces. This is what current stabilisation operations have already proven.

Medical personnel will be employed as the situation demands, and in an effective manner, if they dispose of the same mobility and the same protection as the troops which it is to support. So far, this capability cannot be provided due to the lack of adequately protected medical transport vehicles, and has to be carried out by other, less adequate medical transport vehicles currently deployed.

Hence, there is no alternative to the introduction of a heavily armoured medical transport vehicle. This is where the BOXER fully unfolds its system advantage through its multi-role capability in combination with its modular architecture. It becomes an indispensable element of the rescue requirements for wounded comrades, also under difficult combat conditions.


Q: The creation of this vehicle has taken a lot of time. Will the troops receive the vehicle in time?

Budde: The long period of time for the creation of the BOXER, until series production could now begin, was particularly the result of the changing international history of the project. The cooperation from different nations (finally two nations) and the involvement of the OCCAR as management provider has lead to a vehicle being created which is competitive on an international level and does not need to fear the comparison with other vehicles. The provisions of the development agreement (1999) and the series production contract (2006) have resulted in a vehicle which will have advanced and adapted capabilities, taking into account the accumulated lessons learned from our operations as well as the technical progress which has been made since the beginning of the development phase. The implementation of those capabilities into one system with complex technology requires time which, however, is reasonably invested in respect to the welfare of our soldiers.

The BOXER will be available for the operations of the Bundeswehr by late 2011, at the earliest, with delivery of the first vehicles starting in September 2009. The command and control version of the BOXER will, respectively, be available approximately one year later. Before that, a number of tests still have to be completed, such as testing the vehicles operability in hot and cold climate zones. Additionally, the required training of the soldiers, as well as the pre-deployment training of these forces, has to be carried out.


Q: Can you imagine equipping the vehicle with additional ballistic armour or is there, perhaps, already an intention to apply further protection measures (e.g. reactive armour), considering the future threats encountered in the area of operation?

Budde: There is a constant effort within the Army to constantly keep the protection of deployed vehicles up-to-date with regard to the respective threat situation and the available technology.

In its basic configuration, the BOXER already provides a very good level of passive protection against the larger part of known types of mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), as well as against direct gun fire from all angles and threats from above.

Reduced radar and infra-red signature against detection, low noise emission, high mobility after damages by mine explosions, an NBC protected ventilation system, and well-balanced NBC tempering complete the overall protection concept of the vehicle.

For instance, possibilities for a more system-compatible improvement of the mine and IED protection are currently being studied, due to the current threat situation in Afghanistan.

The enhancement potential of the vehicle equally allows for the adaptation of a standoff active defence system - as soon as this will be technically available. In a medium to long-term perspective, this technology is forward-looking for the protection against ballistic threats, as the use of reactive armour systems is strongly limited due to its heavy weight and its dimensions.*

A complete protection against all imaginable types of threats cannot be realised on any vehicle. The BOXER, however, provides a system-compatible concept in which protection, mobility and functionality have been optimised in a well-balanced way. And it allows for future improvements – perfectly in terms of a “learning system”.

To make a long story short: the BOXER is a cornerstone of the future operational readiness of the Army and of the Armed Forces, as well as of our Dutch partners.


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* This particular point will be closely covered in an interview with Mr. Friedrich Deisenroth, President of IBD Deisenroth, to be published soon at defpro.com.


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