RUAG Supplies Leopard Armoured Engineer and Mine-Clearance Vehicles for the Swiss Armed Forces

RUAG, a technology partner of the Swiss Armed Forces, teamed up with systems specialist Rheinmetall to manufacture and market the armoured engineer and mine clearance vehicle. The vehicle represents a technological world first based on a Leopard-2 chassis. Alongside its military capability, it can be equipped to provide valuable support in the event of disasters or for civil-military collaboration. Delivery of the units to the Swiss Armed Forces was delayed to iron out problems with the power shovel hydraulics that surfaced during endurance tests under extreme military operational conditions. The system was optimised jointly by Rheinmetall and RUAG and successfully subjected to a battery of tests involving other components. Commenting on the hand-over, RUAG Defence CEO Urs Breitmeier says: "What makes the armoured engineer vehicle special is that it has to be able to cope with extreme situations. Unlike a regular excavator, it has to be able to withstand temperatures ranging from -40 to 60 degrees Celsius. Endurance tests have shown this is to be the case, as a result of which we have now reached product maturity. I am delighted to be in a position to hand over the powerful Leopard AEV to armasuisse before the end of the year."