The Jackal is a "highly capable IFV that offers enhanced lethality, survivability, and tactical flexibility," according to Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation.
Platforms are expected to enter service by the end of 2030 with a first batch of Boxers comprising 540 platforms, RBSL officials confirmed to Breaking Defense.
Partnerships with outside industry are a cornerstone of the kingdom’s ambitious growth strategy.
"Rheinmetall didn't build a Boxer factory in Australia as an act of charity. They did it because we paid them to do it," Marcus Hellyer, an Australian defense acquisition expert, told Breaking Defense. "That gives them the capacity to now build stuff for Germany and that will mean that there will be jobs in Australia."
The British Army has shared how it plans on reshaping a dismal land vehicle and equipment export track record that saw it contribute just 4 percent, equivalent to $4.5 billion, toward all UK military exports between 2012 and 2021.
A Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) official at the IQPC International Armoured Vehicles conference in London today said that while they had “some sympathy for industry covering excessive supply chain challenges” caused by COVID-19 and cyber hacking, manufacturers only reacted after feeling an “impact.”
Funding for the items like protective gear and NVGs will be provided from the government’s €100 billon special arms fund, a seismic uplift in defense spending aimed at ending decades of peacetime underfunding and acquiring new military equipment at pace to deter Russian aggression.
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
Artec will expand Boxer assembly lines to five facilities across Europe this year, offering production capacity of 200 vehicles per year, but such a target remains dependent on whether suppliers “can keep the pace” of industrial planning, according to an company official.
A British defense committee meeting heard about concerns brought on by the war in Ukraine, the state of British tanks (some Ukraine-bound) and a potential recovery for the Ajax recon vehicle program.