First infantry fire support vehicles (Heavy Weapon Carrier) based on GTK Boxer AFV will begin arriving from Australia to German military units in just a few weeks. And this is a year later, because they were initially supposed to be received in 2025.
As Hartpunkt writes, new armored vehicles will be precisely serial, not pre-production samples, and will be used for personnel training. It's expected that training will begin in July 2026.
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It's stated that delivery delays are related to the testing procedure, namely the integrated conformity confirmation procedure, for which a full-fledged vehicle arrived from the industry only in the summer of 2025. That is, work could begin only then.
Also clarified that the sample transferred in May 2024 was suited only for several tests, not full-fledged trials. Rheinmetall's comment provides even more details, noting that the procedure is divided into two phases, the first of which has already ended.
The second phase began at the start of 2026, and electromagnetic tests are already underway. Now, it's expected that this process will be completed by the end of this year.
Defense Express recalls that despite the presence of industrial facilities in Germany, fire support vehicle production for the Bundeswehr is carried out in Australia. Perhaps this, to some extent, contributed to delays in industry, because, although in theory variants of both countries should be similar, Germany had certain differences, such as different cargo placement and a local fire control system.
Overall, the fire support vehicle based on the Boxer is equipped with a Lance turret similar to that of the Puma IFV. This provides an armament of a 30mm MK30-2 gun, a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun, and a launcher for MELLS ATGM, which is a local variant of the Israeli Spike.
Germany ordered 123 such armored vehicles for 1.9 billion euros, and another 750 million euros for support during 5 years after arrival, including training. They will arrive to replace Wiesel 1. Recall that in fall 2025, Germans also contracted Schakal IFVs.
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