Patria Awarded Contracts for Finnish Defence Forces

Released on Wednesday, December 22, 2004

The Finnish Defence Forces have placed two important materiel procurement contracts worth around 168 million Euro ($210 million) with Patria. The first contract covers bridging and breaching systems and the second one is for AMV 8x8 armored vehicles.

The bridging and breaching systems order is valued at approximately 72 million Euro with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2006 and will continue through 2008. Six tracked bridging systems based on the Leopard 2 A4 main battle tank and nine wheeled bridging systems using a modified Sisu off-road vehicle will be delivered to the Finnish Defence Forces as well as tooling, training and technical documentation.

The first contract also includes six tracked breaching systems mounted on Leopard 2 A4 main battle tank chassis. These systems will feature full-width mine ploughs, combat dozers and line marking systems. Maintenance, logistics support and documentation for the breaching systems will be provided under this contract.

The second contract provides funding for the first batch of Patria's AMV 8x8 armored vehicle ordered by the Finnish Defence Force valued at 96 million Euro. Finland had already ordered the AMV-AMOS mortar carrier variant with first deliveries expected in 2006. Up to 62 AMVs will be delivered between 2006 and 2007. These vehicles will be integrated with a heavy machine gun turrets.

The AMV wheeled armored modular vehicle has already been ordered by Poland and many other countries are evaluating and testing the type. Patria believes that AMVs have a big export potential due it is a fourth generation vehicle already on series production.