Thales UK welcomes MOD's OCCAR Announcement for MIV

Thales UK welcomes the announcement by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) that their preferred procurement route for the British Army’s Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) programme is through the OCCAR organisation (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement/Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation). 
 
The ARTEC joint venture of Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann have partnered with a consortium of UK Defence Companies, including Thales UK, in order to offer the BOXER 8x8 Armoured Vehicle solution into the MIV programme, via the OCCAR framework.  Thales’ work will help bring a focus on Jobs in the UK with UK production of the BOXER creating and sustaining highly skilled jobs at Thales sites in Glasgow, Belfast and Bristol, as well as sustaining many more jobs throughout our supply chain in Scotland and across the UK. 
 
ARTEC believes that the MoD will find that BOXER offers excellent value for money and will provide an off-the-shelf capability that fully satisfies the requirements of the Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) program.  Thales UK, as part of this strong consortium, is confident that this Battle Wining capability can be delivered to meet the MOD’s challenging timelines in order to achieve operational readiness of the first UK Strike Brigade by 2025.  This contract will also help position Thales to better support ARTEC in the export market.  Throughout the world Land Forces rely on Thales’ vehicle support solutions for all mission types with more than 50 National Land Forces being currently equipped by Thales.