Uncertainty surrounds the British Army’s Mechanised Infantry Vehicle programme amid reports in October that the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants a single source purchase of vehicles from, as opposed to a competitive tender.
The MIV programme focuses on a eight-wheel drive armoured vehicle requirement, intended to be an off-the-shelf procurement equipped with some UK sourced subsystems such as a remote weapon station, communications and a battle management system.
Among the MIV contenders demonstrated at Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD) 2016 demonstration at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, southern England this September was the French Nexter VBCI; the Finnish Patria Armoured Modular Vehicle (AMV) with a Lockheed Martin turret; the General Dynamics UK Piranha-5; the ARTEC Boxer which is in service with the German and Netherlands armies, and Singapore Technologies’ Kinetics Terrex 3 making its European debut.
However, the future of the programme remains uncertain following media reports in mid-October that the UK MoD and British Army favoured a single-source procurement of the Boxer vehicle without holding a competitive tender to satisfy the MIV requirement. This had drawn opposition from UK defence industry organisations which are urging the UK MoD to adopt an open tendering process.
