Prototype Fabrication Begins for Britain’s Boxer Mechanized Infantry Vehicle

Welding work began today for the fabrication of prototypes and subsequent series production of the Boxer Mechanized Infantry Vehicle (MIV) programme under which British Army is procuring over 500 Boxer vehicles.

Under the aegis of Artec GmbH, a joint venture of Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), Rheinmetall will fabricate first prototypes at its plant in Kassel, Germany which will also make the the first series vehicles.

The prototypes will have content supplied by the United Kingdom, such as the remotely controlled weapon stations, generic vehicle architecture components, the local situational awareness system or the vehicle emergency lighting system.

Though series production will begin in Germany, the bulk of manufacturing activity will move to the United Kingdom in 2023, principally at the British plants of Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) and the KMW subsidiary WFEL.

Rheinmetall’s Kassel plant is actively pursuing the transfer of know-how – specifically its special welding expertise – to British colleagues at RBSL.

In total, the British Army is procuring over 500 Boxer vehicles, including Infantry Carrying Vehicle, Command & Control, Field Ambulance and Specialist Carrier variants. Delivery of the highly protected 8x8 armoured vehicles is slated to begin at the end of 2022.

In November 2019, the British Ministry of Defence placed an order with Artec GmbH via the European armament agency OCCAR worth around Euro 2.6 billion.

The Boxer is a heavily protected 8x8 wheeled armored vehicle. To date, some 1.200 vehicles in more than 20 different configurations are under contract by four NATO nations: Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and the UK. Moreover, Australia has ordered a total of 211 Boxer vehicles in several different versions.