Patria wins Polish armoured personnel carrier tender
Grzegorz Holdanowicz JDW Correspondent
Warsaw
Poland's Ministry of National Defence (MND) has selected Finland's Patria Vehicles' new 8 x 8 Armoured Modular Vehicle ( AMV) to meet the army's requirement for a new armoured personnel carrier (APC).
The Wojskowe Zaklady Mechaniczne (WZM), a state-owned military production facility, will act as the prime contractor for the programme (Jane's Defence Weekly 20 November 2002). It submitted a Zl 4.93 billion ($1.25 billion) bid to provide up to 690 vehicles over a 10-year period.
A contract between WZM and Patria is expected to be signed by mid-year. However, this is dependent on Patria agreeing to provide offsets worth at least the value of the contract. Patria has built only one prototype of the vehicle and this was the example tested in Poland.
Poland will become the first export customer for the AMV. Each bid was evaluated on pricing (60% of points), level of local industrial co-operation (25%) and guarantee terms and conditions (15%). The WZM/Patria proposal was not only the cheapest but was also identified as the most cost effective, according to MND officials. The team offered a 42-month guarantee.
MND officials said that the Pandur IIP APC offered by OBRUM and PHZ Bumar of Poland teamed with Steyr Spezialfahrzeug was 40% higher, about $500 million than the WZM/Patria proposal. The bid of the Polish Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW)/ Swiss MOWAG team, offering the Piranha IIIC, was $100 million more than the winning bid.
Of the 690 vehicles, 313 infantry fighting vehicles will be fitted with the Oto Melara Hitfist 30P turret armed with 30/40mm ATK MK 44 guns and 87 vehicles will be fitted with a remotely operated 12.7mm heavy machine gun. There will be 290 specialised variants including 118 command and control vehicles, 48 engineer reconnaissance vehicles, 46 armoured ambulances, 46 armoured recovery vehicles and 32 vehicles in a future 6 x 6 reconnaissance configuration.
The first nine vehicles, three of each group, must be delivered by the end of 2004. The first 90 APCs are to equip two infantry battalions planned to achieve initial operational capability in 2006.
These are expected to be battalions of the 21st Mountain Brigade, responsible for the Polish contribution to the Polish-Ukrainian Peacekeeping Battalion, and the 12th Mechanised Brigade that provides a battalion to the UN's Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade.
After 2005 WZM is expected to supply 90 vehicles per year.
As JDW went to press HSW confirmed that it submitted a formal protest as the price of the winning bid was based on the manufacture of the Hitfist 30P turret in Poland. However, HSW has an exclusive agreement with Oto Melara to locally produce this turret.
· Patria is under contract to supply two AMV prototypes in an infantry fighting vehicle configuration to the Finnish Defence Force later this year (JDW 18 September 2002). If trials are successful up to 100 vehicles may be ordered for the army's rapid reaction brigades.
The first Patria AMV prototype, fitted with a remotely-operated 12.7mm overhead weapons station
(Source: Patria)
