12:11 GMT, September 23, 2009 defpro.com | The German Defence Minister Dr. Franz Josef Jung and his Dutch counterpart, Eimert van Middlekoop, today attended the handover ceremony in Munich, Germany, at which the German Federal Office of Defence, Technology and Procurement (BWB) received the first armoured transport vehicle BOXER from Rheinmetall Defence and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW). The BWB will test the vehicle’s operability before introducing it into service in October 2010.

The BOXER is a forward-looking highly mobile wheeled vehicle. It provides space for up to ten soldiers and the highest level of protection against mines as well as of survivability for the crew inside the large and fully protected cabin. Due to its modular design it is possible to transform the vehicle, for instance, from a medical configuration to a command and control configuration in very short periods of time, depending of the mission requirements.

In his speech Minister Jung emphasised that a best-possible protection in operations is an “indispensible prerequisite in order to accomplish the mission and shows the states duty of caring for the members of the Bundeswehr.” Particularly the BOXER meets these prerequisites: “Protection, flexibility and endurance will turn the BOXER into a ‘mother ship’ in operations, especially for our infantrymen,” the Minister said.

The series production of the BOXER comprises a total number of 272 vehicles for the Bundeswehr, of which 36 vehicles will be delivered until 2010, and 200 vehicles for the Dutch Armed Forces. KMW and Rheinmetall jointly created the BOXER in cooperation with national and international partners in the ARTECT consortium.

(This is an unofficial translation of the German press release by defpro.com/nvk)


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