The first vehicle in a major upgrade of Norway’s CV9030 armored vehicle fleet was handed over to our customer yesterday by Tommy Gustafsson-Rask, President of BAE Systems Hägglunds AB.
The new vehicle fleet has significantly enhanced protection, survivability, situational awareness and interoperability, incorporating lessons learned from Norwegian, Swedish and Danish operations in Afghanistan with CV90. The vehicles will run on the latest rubber tracks, combat-proven by Norwegian forces in Afghanistan.
The CV90 Norway project will deliver a fully-digitized flexible fleet of 74 infantry fighting, 21 reconnaissance, 15 command, 16 engineering, 16 multi-role and two driver training vehicles. The multi-role vehicles can fulfill different functions, including mortar carrier and logistics roles. Deliveries of the production vehicles start in January 2015 and continue to 2017.
The roll-out of this pre-series infantry fighting vehicle was attended by Öystein Bö, Secretary of State Norway and Carl von der Esch, State Secretary for Sweden.
Highly cost-effective Norwegian upgrade program
Norway’s existing 103 CV90s, delivered from the mid-1990s, represented the first export contract for CV90. In June 2012 we received a $750m (£0.5 bn) contract from the Norwegian Government to upgrade the fleet.
As part of this program, we are also building more than a hundred all-new vehicle chassis to take Norway’s CV90 fleet to 144 vehicles in five different configurations, including a variant equipped with a sensor suite for improved surveillance capability.
Tommy said: “The complex but highly cost-effective Norwegian upgrade program is running on time and to budget. Norway’s vehicles will be the most advanced CV90s yet ¬and benefit from more than four million engineering hours.
“This is excellent news, not just for Norway, but for all current and prospective CV90 customers. That’s because our continuous development work on a wide range of existing variants helps ensure that we can keep all users’ vehicles at the forefront of technology at the lowest possible cost and risk.”
World’s most advanced armored combat vehicle
Colonel Ragnar Wennevik, program director for the Norwegian Armed Forces commented: “With the new CV90, we are buying the world’s most advanced armored combat vehicle family. Already proven in combat, we are now taking it to the next generation with state-of-the-art survivability, lethality, digitization and mobility.”
Norwegian industry is playing a major role. One partner is Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, which leads a team of Thales Norway and Vinghøg. The Kongsberg team is responsible for the integrated data and information system, including integration of weapon systems, sensors, communication and security systems. The Kongsberg Protector remote weapon station will be fitted to all variants of the vehicle.
Joint Nordic armed forces training
The Swedish-built CV90 has been selected by the Nordic nations Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, plus Switzerland and The Netherlands. The first CV90 was delivered to Sweden in 1993 and the Norwegian program takes the number of vehicles ordered to more than 1200.
In January, Sweden announced that it would refurbish its fleet of CV90s in a program which could last up to ten years. The latest Armadillo variant is also a candidate for a Danish requirement for more than 200 armored personnel carriers. This Danish requirement covers six variants: Infantry, Command Post, Repair, Ambulance, Mortar and Engineer.
“CV90’s use by the Nordic nations means it is ideal for supporting cooperation between their armed forces,” says Tommy Gustafsson-Rask, President BAE Systems Hägglunds AB.
“Operationally, for example, there is potential for joint Nordic armed forces training on the vehicle. Our customers already collaborate on CV90 vehicle developments such as the rubber band tracks successfully trialed in Afghanistan, and there could be pooling between CV90 customers for future vehicle support arrangements.”
