United Kingdom Has Received its 100th Boxer APC

Team Boxer UK has delivered the 100th Boxer APC to the UK Ministry of Defence, thereby demonstrating the successful mobilization of its production capabilities and the continued momentum of one of the UK’s most important land defense programs.

This was reported by Rheinmetall.

The program is being implemented through collaboration between Rheinmetall, KNDS, the British Armed Forces, the National Armaments Group (NAD Group), the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) agency, OCCAR, the ARTEC consortium, and a network of British partners in the supply chain.

“International cooperation through OCCAR and ARTEC has facilitated technology transfer to the United Kingdom, building on the country’s proud history of armored vehicle production,” said Martin Williams, Senior Boxer Project Manager at the NAD Group.

The Boxer in the British Army

The Mechanized Infantry Vehicle (MIV) program and the introduction of the 8×8 Boxer armored personnel carrier into the British Armed Forces have a long history, as it was rejected in 2003 in favor of domestic projects for vehicles of this class, even though the UK was one of the first participants in the multinational project to develop the Boxer platform in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Subsequently, the UK rejoined the project in 2018 as part of a tender for combat vehicles, ordering approximately 500 vehicles worth 2 billion pounds sterling. The decision to return to this project was made following a series of interim competitions to develop wheeled and tracked vehicles for the army, and the contract awarded called for a significant portion of the manufacturing work to be carried out in the United Kingdom.

Under the agreement, production lines were set up in the cities of Telford and Stockport to establish independent industrial capacity for this type of equipment, which could be sustained throughout the program’s duration and utilized to support exports.

The Boxer is a key component of the British Armed Forces’ Armored Battle Brigades (ABCT). It is designed to rapidly transport troops to and around the battlefield, enabling them to perform their service-specific roles.

The platform itself is a modular eight-wheeled armored vehicle, jointly developed by Germany and the Netherlands and manufactured under license by the ARTEC consortium. The design separates the drive module from the interchangeable mission module, allowing the same chassis and powertrain to be used for a wide range of configurations tailored to specific tasks.

The British variants currently in production include configurations for troop transport, command vehicles, medical evacuation vehicles, and specialized transport vehicles. Other variants are expected to emerge as the program progresses into the production phase.

The Boxer weighs approximately 38,500 kg in its infantry transport configuration, and its protection meets Level 4 of the NATO STANAG 4569 standard in its base configuration, meaning it can withstand impacts from 14.5 mm armor-piercing rounds and artillery shell fragments. Additional armor packages are available to further enhance protection levels depending on the threat environment. The vehicle carries a crew and up to eight infantrymen, travels on roads at a speed of approximately 103 km/h, and has a road range of about 1,050 km.

As of the beginning of this year, it was known that Artec had delivered and manufactured over 2,100 Boxers in 28 variants for seven countries, some of which ordered two or three batches: 837 in eight variants for Germany, 629 vehicles in five variants for the United Kingdom, 272 vehicles in five variants for the Netherlands, 211 in eight variants for Australia, 118 vehicles in five variants for Lithuania, over 50 vehicles in two variants for Ukraine, and 22 in two variants for Qatar.