BAE Systems has signed a follow-on contract, valued at $90 million, with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) for two new variants in the CV90 armoured vehicle family, which are being added to Sweden’s CV90 RENO upgrade programme, the company announced on 17 November.

The two new variants will be delivered by HB Utveckling AB, which combines BAE Systems Hägglunds’ and Bofors’ manufacturing capabilities. The new variants are the Forward Maintenance vehicle, which will provide critical frontline support, repair, and recovery, ensuring improved overall combat vehicle availability; and the Combat Engineer variant, which will significantly grow the ability to ensure route clearance and deny enemy forces mission-critical mobility. The new variants will join the Swedish Army’s mechanised formations, with deliveries scheduled 2023-2027.

“The collaborative approach involved in the Swedish CV90 RENO programme has been recognised as a key success factor in achieving a timely, balanced, and cost-effective solution to meet the customer’s capability requirements,” commented Tommy Gustafsson-Rask, Managing Director at BAE Systems Hägglunds.

The new variants will be produced at BAE Systems Hägglunds’ facility in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden and by Ritek in Levanger, Norway. Ritek is a key industrial partner in the Norwegian CV90 programme, and its role in the Swedish programme is significant, moving the company into the international CV90 supply chain. “Ritek has demonstrated that it has the industrial capability and skills required for such a programme,” explained Peter Sedin, BAE Systems Hägglunds’ Director of Operations. “As our production partner for a similar Norwegian Army programme, it made sense to turn to Ritek when we were looking for the optimal industrial setup for this important FMV contract.”

Some 1,300 CV90s serve with the Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Swiss armed forces, sharing a combat-proven track record and designed to accommodate future growth to meet evolving missions. More recently, both Slovakia and the Czech Republic have selected the CV90 to replace their legacy IFV fleets. The family of vehicles now consists of 17 variants, and is designed to provide optimum mobility, with the highest level of protection in any terrain or tactical environment. The CV90 MkIV combines improved battlefield speed and handling with an upgraded electronic architecture to support future growth capabilities as the complex battlefield evolves.

Original at Monch Publishing Group.