Cooperation programme for sustained army mobility enhancement launched

On 29 January 2020, Finland and Latvia signed a Technical Arrangement on launching a development programme for sustained army mobility enhancement.

The cooperation programme aims to develop a combined armoured wheeled vehicle system. In case this development leads to vehicle system procurement in the future, the resulting combined system enhances mobility and cost-efficiency as well as international connectivity and national security of supply of the armies of the participating nations.

Based on national and multinational tests and evaluations, the vehicle chassis platform chosen for the basis of the development in-progress is a Finnish-made Patria 6x6 armoured wheeled vehicle chassis platform that meets the set capability requirements. At this stage, the countries have agreed on cost-sharing arrangements, schedule and technical specifications as part of the Technical Arrangement.

- Army mobility enhancement undergoes long-term and systematic development in accordance with the national defence budget and the Finnish Defence Forces’ development programme.  This particular project programme now focuses on generating and securing wheeled mobility of the most capable operational forces of the Army capable of operating across the nation well into the 2040s, Inspector of the infantry, Colonel Rainer Peltoniemi explains.

At this stage, this is a cooperation programme on research and product development. The following phase involves preparing a combined product development agreement. As for the actual procurement acquisitions, the countries will separately determine these. Possible deliveries may begin in the year 2021 with serial procurement acquisitions extending over a number of years.

The Finnish Army releases information on the programme’s advancement for its own part.

The Ministry of Defence released information on the signing of the Technical Arrangement on 29 January 2020.

The Letter of Intent was signed in December 2019.