Sweden Orders 48 Armored All-Terrain Vehicles

FMV has decided to procure 48 all-terrain vehicles from BAE Systems Hägglunds in Sweden. The first vehicles will be delivered in the autumn of 2012 to allow them to be ready for international operations in the spring of 2013. The elapsed time from the start of the project to today's award decision has been less than a year. For such a large procurement, this is considered to be a very short time. FMV received two very competitive bids offering two qualified vehicle systems. “After evaluating the two bids, including an overall assessment of the two vehicle systems’ performance, price and life cycle cost, FMV decided to assign the contract to BAE Systems Hägglunds and their model BvS10 MkIIB,” says Peter Elmlund, Project Manager at FMV. The Swedish Armed Forces have set stringent requirements for the vehicles. They should be able to operate off-road in terrain characterized by deep snow, mud, mires and sand and also be able to swim across lakes and rivers. At the same time they should protect the personnel and crew against enemy fire and mines. They should also be easy to repair and maintain. “All of these requirements we have been evaluated. But also the price issue which of course is important,” says Peter Elmlund. The Swedish government decided in 2010 that the new all-terrain vehicles should be procured to the Armed Forces. About 30 people at FMV have since then been involved in the project to formulate requirements, review bids, evaluate the price, costs and conditions and to test the two competing vehicles.