On 29th January ministers of defense of Finland and Latvia, Antti Kaikkonen and Artis Pabriks signed a Technical Arrangement on launching a development programme for the sustained army mobility enhancement. The cooperation programme aims to develop a common armoured wheeled vehicle system.
Finland and Latvia agreed on developing an armoured vehicle system, which will be based on a Patria vehicle chassis chosen for the development in-progress / Picture: MILMAG D&S
Both parties expect that in case the new development programme leads to vehicle system procurement, the common vehicle system will enhance mobility, cost-efficiency, interoperability and security of supply of the armies of the participating nations.
‘At this stage, this is a cooperation between Finland and Latvia, but the following phases allow also other countries to join the cooperation programme. This sets an excellent example of deepening defence cooperation between EU member states’, said minister Kaikkonen at the signing event.
With the Letter of Intent signed in December, Estonia together with Latvia and Finland has shown interest in acquiring armoured vehicles for their national armed forces. Based on national and multinational tests and evaluations, the vehicle chassis platform chosen for the development in-progress is a Finnish-made Patria 6×6 armoured wheeled vehicle platform that meets the set capability requirements.