Telford company reveals 'significant progress' in production of British Army's Boxer vehicles
A Telford company has made 'significant progress' as it moves closer to rolling the first British Army Boxer Vehicle off its production line.
Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) officially began work on delivering more than 260 units of the Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle at its Hadley Castle Works site earlier this year, having invested £40 million in the 29-acre facility.
The firm has now confirmed welding has been completed on the first UK manufactured mission module for the programme.
It will now move into paint and assembly for the next stage of the manufacturing process.
Brian Fisher, MIV production manager said it was a major milestone and added: “The first and second mission modules have progressed through the welding assembly stations and we are delighted.
“The MIV team have worked diligently and performed really well to get us to this position and our team of welders are continuing to gain knowledge and experience daily, whilst highlighting improvements within the manufacturing process.
“This is significant progress and we are moving closer each day to Boxer rolling off the production lines at Telford.”
The Boxer programme will deliver more than 600 vehicles to the British Army. Production has been subcontracted equally between RBSL and Stockport-based KNDS.
Both companies are undertaking fabrication of the armoured vehicle structures together with assembly, integration and testing of the complete vehicles at their respective facilities.
Colin McClean, RBSL managing director said: “RBSL is proud to be regenerating this armoured vehicle capability and contributing to the Land Industrial Strategy, marking a new chapter in vehicle manufacture for the UK defence industry.
"Not only will the delivery of Boxer provide the British Army with a complete step-change in capability to meet their MIV requirement, it will also protect vital engineering and manufacturing skills as a sovereign capability to the UK and we are incredibly proud to be a part of this milestone, alongside our partners in KNDS.”
