Rheinmetall-BAE JV Awarded UK Fox Vehicle Sustainment Contract

The joint venture company Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) has won a UK MoD contract to upgrade and sustain the British Army’s fleet of Fuchs/Fox CBRN reconnaissance vehicles and training simulator.

The order is worth over £16m/€17.5m. The vehicle, which can travel at speeds of up to 100kph, is operated by a four-strong team who are sealed in against hazardous environments and can establish the severity and location of any chemical or radiological threat.

The nine-strong fleet of FUCHS are complemented by a training simulator – also to be updated and sustained under the contract – which ensures the specialist operators within the Warminster-based Falcon Squadron can undergo regular training on site, the UK defense ministry said.

The Fuchs is a 6x6 armoured vehicle with built-in detection equipment for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. The German government gave the British Army 11 ex-German Army Fuchs vehicles in 1990 to support ground operations during the First Gulf War.

RBSL will address equipment-related obsolescence issues and upgrade the system with the latest generation of sensing capabilities. Rheinmetall Landsysteme will be drawing on comprehensive technological support from of its centre of excellence for NBC systems technology in Kassel.