The Swedish procurement authority FMV has concluded a contract with the Finnish arms manufacturer Patria for the delivery of 321 Patria 6×6 armored personnel carriers with associated weapon stations. FMV and Patria announced this in press releases. According to Patria, the contract has a value of 470 million euros and is one of the largest that the company Patria, which is majority owned by the Finnish state, has ever concluded in Sweden. According to FMV, deliveries are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2024 and continue until 2030.
Sweden ordered the first 20 Patria 6×6 vehicles on April 17, 2023. The delivery took place as planned and the vehicles were officially handed over to the troops on October 26th (ESuTreported).
The new vehicles will be introduced into the force under the name Pansarterrängbil 300. The vehicles will be used, among others, to equip the Livgardet Regiment in Kungsängen (approx. 30 km northwest of Stockholm) and other units.
According to Patria's description, the 6×6 vehicle scheduled for delivery is the troop transport model, which offers the latest vehicle technology such as state-of-the-art protection for up to 12 crew members. The vehicle has a modular design and can be configured for a variety of purposes. The FMV mentions the configuration as a command vehicle or as a medical vehicle as further variants.
“Sweden is an increasingly important market for us and we are pleased to be able to support the Swedish Armed Forces at a time when they are expanding rapidly. We are confident that we can process deliveries quickly as in the past. The Pansarterrängbil 300 vehicle is an excellent example of Finnish-Swedish cooperation, as the vehicle was designed from the outset for Nordic conditions and Swedish suppliers make a significant contribution, e.g. B. in the engine and the steel of the armor,” says Mats Warstedt, Senior Vice President of the Nordics market area at Patria.
As part of the Common Armored Vehicle System (CAVS), Finland and Latvia initially further developed Patria's 6×6 vehicle according to the troops' requirements. Sweden and Germany later joined the procurement initiative.
Latvia, as the launch customer, ordered 200 Patria 6×6 in September 2021 for delivery in the period 2021 to 2029. The vehicles have already been used in a NATO exercise. The Latvian industry is involved in production. After receiving three pre-production vehicles in 2022, Finland ordered 91 CAVS vehicles in mid-2023 and agreed an option for a further 70 vehicles. Delivery has begun. So far, a total of 635 Patria 6×6 have been ordered in three variants.
| Country | Order | option |
| Latvia | 200 | |
| Sweden | 20 + 321 | |
| Finland | 3 + 91 | 70 |
| Germany | ||
| Total | 635 | 70 |
Germany, the fourth CAVS member, has not yet placed an order. After a maturity analysis and a comparative assessment of competitors to replace the Fuchs armored personnel carrier, a selection decision is expected in the next few months. The demand in Germany is in the order of 1,000 vehicles. In the run-up to the decision, an industrial group with FFG Flensburger Fahrzeugbaugesellschaft and DSL Defense Service Logistics, a company owned by the German KNDS subsidiary Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, under the leadership of Patria, had already joined forces to provide Germany with the development, production and maintenance of variants the 6×6 armored personnel carrier from Patria (ESuTreported).
Germany would become by far the largest operator of the protected Patria 6×6.
Gerhard Heiming
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