The British Army will procure the RCH155 wheeled howitzer on the Boxer driving module for its Mobile Fires Program. At their meeting on April 24, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed that Germany and the United Kingdom will jointly acquire, evaluate and optimize the Remote Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) wheeled howitzer. “In doing so, we will build on our existing comprehensive cooperation, including the continued cooperation on Boxer, which we will further develop,” the federal government writes in a statement of results.
On the information platform X, the British Ministry of Defense added: “The @Britisharmy is procuring the Boxer-based RCH155 as a permanent mobile fire platform. The artillery system will be built in Great Britain and Germany and will support hundreds of jobs across the country. Defense Minister James Cartlidge recently saw the artillery piece in action.
Great Britain ordered a total of 623 Boxers in four variants (infantry transport, command vehicle, field ambulance and special transporter) in 2019 and 2022, of which evidence vehicles are being tested by the troops. Delivery of the series vehicles is scheduled to begin this year.
The British Army is also interested in other variants. These include the recovery boxer with a 20-ton crane and 22-ton winch, the bridge boxer with battlefield bridges 14m (MLC 80) and 22m (MLC 50) and a mortar boxer with a 120mm mortar. These variants are largely ready for production. Procurement contracts are expected to be concluded soon.
In the wheeled howitzer RCH 155 variant that has now been agreed upon, a fully automatic 155mm/L52 artillery gun is installed in a platform-independent gun turret. The weapon system, built on the Boxer vehicle's driving module, can fire up to nine 155mm rounds per minute. The unique feature of the Boxer RCH 155 is the ability to fire while driving, providing effective protection against reconnaissance and fire. The projectiles can reach distances of around 40 kilometers. The Boxer RCH 155 is intended to replace the 30-year-old AS90 self-propelled howitzers, of which the British Army still has 57 units in its inventory after 30 units were sold to the Ukraine.
The Boxer RCH 155 is in production for Ukraine. Delivery of 36 ordered wheeled howitzers is scheduled to begin this year and be completed in 2027. Germany needs around 160 artillery boxers, among other things, to equip the intermediate forces. The procurement could be contracted this year.
Together with the Boxer-based infantry fighting vehicles planned by Germany, the total requirements not yet covered by contracts add up to over 500 Boxers in at least five variants. If their production is not to drag on for endless years, production capacity must be expanded significantly. Because capacities in Europe are apparently at capacity. Therefore, the production of the heavy infantry weapon carrier has been outsourced.
Gerhard Heiming