ARTEC GmbH

Multinational Programme

BOXER is a Multi-Lateral Programme for development and series production of a multirole, 8x8 armoured vehicle. Starting in 1999, a development contract with ARTEC by Germany and the United Kingdom was signed. The Netherlands joined in 2001. The then participating nations UK, Germany and the Netherlands decided to task the International Organisation of Joint Armament Co-operation OCCAR with the programme management on their behalf. OCCAR’s key task is to harmonize the requirements, timelines and funding of the participating nations in the programme. Doing so, OCCAR acts as the focal point of contact for ARTEC regarding the programme since.

In 2004, the UK left the BOXER development programme, as the UK at that point in time decided to follow a new military strategy, no longer using heavily armoured wheeled vehicles as BOXER. In August 2016, Lithuania formally joined the BOXER-Programme and signed a first batch of BOXER vehicles. In April 2018, Great Britain officially announced to evaluate BOXER as their Mechanised Infantry and re-joined the BOXER Programme at OCCAR.

The participating nations authorize OCCAR to act on their behalf to coordinate the programme. One of the main aspects of this coordination is keeping the common part of the programme (the Drive Module and major components of the Mission Module). This results in significant savings for the nations, as most parts are identical and can be shared without additional costs.

The Game Changing advantages of the multi-lateral contract via OCCAR are:

Relying on an existing and negotiated contract with identical commercial conditions for all nations – all nations are treated equally
Avoid the staff and associated costs of establishing a further large project team within Bulgarian MoD to manage such a complex project by relying on available experience and capacities at OCCAR
Price-level will be identical to result of competition – BOXER prices are already negotiated and known by OCCAR in detail
Opportunity to gain political and project influence with the DE-NL-LT-BOXER family – via competition an influence will be reduced
Benefits by sharing costs between the BOXER nations via established contracts via NATO or OCCAR during the in-service phase and for new developments or joint upgrades of vehicles

Once relying on common equipment in an international cooperation of user nations, the following benefits unfold:

Saving costs in procurement
Utilising OCCAR as procurement arm for the 8x8 will allow a customer nation to save costs significantly.
A new nation can benefit from a proven commercial setup.
Saving costs during life cycle, as BOXER is the only European 8x8 Programme, run via OCCAR and NSPA with already more than 1,300 vehicles in Europe with highest commonality
Ensuring soonest delivery, as BOXER is in ongoing series production since 2009 with a high variety of designs to choose from and five running production lines – contributing to earliest possible delivery.
Co-operation with NATO Forces, as BOXER allows for a qquantum leap in interoperability, as 5 European nations are already running the same 8x8.

ARTEC GmbH is joint venture of