On 5 November 2019, the British Army announced that it had signed a contract with Germany to purchase more than 500 Boxer Dog armored vehicles as its next-generation mechanized infantry vehicles. The British Army said that the "Boxer Dog" armored vehicle will provide the transformational ability to win the battle, and will become the backbone of the British next-generation strike brigade, which is a key step in the development of the British Army.
The contract cost £2.8 billion, meaning each Boxing Lion cost £5.6 million, or about 50 million yuan.
Boxer wav, is a multi-purpose wheeled armored vehicle jointly developed by Germany and the Netherlands, the car as a wheeled car family in the new century, the use of modular design, can be used in different equipment to form a variety of different uses of vehicles, such as infantry fighting vehicles, combat reconnaissance vehicles, armored command vehicles, armored repair vehicles, material delivery vehicles, armored ambulances and so on. Moreover, its armor adopts modular armor, which can be set in different positions of the hull through bolt combinations to strengthen the protection level of key parts. And change the appropriate task module according to the task type.
The "Boxer Dog" armored vehicle of the German army in Afghanistan has a crew of 2+8
The car was produced by artec gmbh (Armoured Vehicle Technology) Industrial Group, formerly known as Klaus-Marffei Wiggmann (kmw) and Rheinmetall Mann Military Vehicles. Rheinmetall became a superhemoth of the German military industry after announcing the acquisition of Klaus-Marffei Wiggmann in November 2018.
In general, the price of tank armored vehicles is directly proportional to their weight, especially the "Boxer Dog". As the first heavy wheeled infantry fighting vehicle, the basic soldier transport model of the "Boxer Dog" has a combat weight of up to 33 tons, and the infantry combat model is as high as 38.5 tons. However, the weight is also to improve the level of protection, the "Boxer Dog" defense ability to meet the NATO stanag 4569 level 6 protection standards (the head of the car can protect from 500 meters away from 30 mm tail stable shelling shells, the whole car can protect against 155 mm shell fragments and shock waves that explode 10 meters away). It also has the ability to prevent landmines, which can be regarded as the best in wheeled armored vehicles.
In addition, due to its large size, the "Boxer Dog" is notoriously comfortable to sit up, with large crew space, air conditioning, low noise, and even a toilet.
"Boxer Dog" toilet in the car
Although heavy, it is highly maneuverable thanks to its powerful 720 hp 8-cylinder supercharged diesel engine, which can reach a maximum road speed of 103 km / h. It is very suitable for use in Europe where the km network is developed.
Since 2017, the Germans have targeted the British Army Mechanized Infantry Vehicle Program (MIV) in the United Kingdom, marketing the "Boxer Dog" armored vehicle to the British Army, and for this purpose, they have also specially built a "Boxer Dog" painted with a British rice flag to participate in the exhibition and test. It can be said that no effort has been spared in promotion and publicity, after all, this is a big business of hundreds of vehicles.
"Boxer Dog" painted with rice flag
The excellent sales record of the Boxer Dog is also a source of confidence for the Germans, in addition to the 408 units purchased by the German Army, the Dutch Army purchased 200 vehicles (the Netherlands announced additional purchases in early 2018), and Lithuania ordered 88 units in 2016. In February 2018, Slovenia announced the purchase of 56 Boxer Dogs. On March 14, 2018, Australia announced the purchase of 211 Boxer Dog 8×8 wheeled armored vehicles with a total contract value of US$5 billion.
Australia's first "Boxer Dog" delivered
In fact, the list was almost finalized in July 2019, and on July 1, 2019, Rheinmetall of Germany and Bae Systems of the United Kingdom formed a separate joint venture (JV). The company, called Rheinmetallbaesystemsland (RBSL) and headquartered in Telford, West Midlands, will provide around 450 jobs in the UK and prepare for future expansion. In fact, it was preparing for the production of the "boxer dog", and it was almost officially announced.
It is not clear that the British Army will buy that kind of boxer dog, it seems to buy a basic armored transport model, nor will the British buy a command, battlefield rescue or engineer boxer dog.
The British Army now has a lot of German goods in hand. Since the British had shut down their tank production lines, wheeled armored vehicles could not be made. In addition to the wheeled armored vehicle to purchase the German "boxer dog", the few remaining challenger 2 modification work required the help of German Rheinmetall to install the German 120mm l55 smoothbore gun. In terms of rifles, the Sa80 assault rifle equipped by the British army was also handed over to hk for improvement due to frequent failures. And from the British military exercise footage, the British Army seems to have some hk417 rifles.
With the German l55 120mm tank gun mounted on the Challenger 2 tank, the British Army will only have 148 tanks in the future.
The British and Germans fought two world wars, and it was a bit ironic that the army would eventually use German goods.