Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and the Italian vehicle manufacturer IVECO have signed a cooperation agreement on the development of a new military vehicle family in the weight class of 18 to 25 tons in Paris.

For this class, there is a specific armed forces demand in Germany as well as in Italy. The two companies intend to serve this demand jointly in the future with highly protected two-axle and three-axle vehicles. „This agreement is vitally important for the expansion of our international network but also for the European desire for cross-border cooperation,“ declared Frank Haun, CEO and President of KMW and Pietro Borgo, head of the IVECO-business unit for military wheeled vehicles after the joint signature. „We will develop a vehicle family that, due to its standardized and modular concept, may be adapted to each specific demand of our national as well as international customers,“ they both explained. In a first step, the German market will be addressed in the Federal Armed Forces class 4 for Armoured Command-Control and Opertions Vehicles (GFF4) with the version 6x6 (i.e. three axles, six driven wheels). In Italy, the VTM-x-vehicle is simultaneously introduced in a 4x4 version.

A prototype of the three-axle version is currently tested by the Federal Armed Forces. A two-axle variant will be derived from this model and will this year already be available as prototype for trial purposes. Depending on the customer requirements, the serial production delivery of the first vehicles may already start from 2009 on. The vehicle family is particularly characterized by its high level of protection against all common threats in the ongoing international NATO and EU operations like in Afghanistan, by an extraordinarily high mobility, a high vehicle payload as well as by a simple and reliable suppliability which is ensured due to the use of standardized

components.

KMW
19.06.2008