WFEL begins Boxer production work in the UK

WFEL announced on 6 July that it has begun production of the Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) in the UK at its recently built Stockport facility.

‘It is a number of years since any new armoured vehicles have been manufactured in the UK,’ the company noted in a statement.

It added that fabrication of vehicle sub-assemblies has been going on in recent weeks at the Stockport plant. 

Under a technology transfer programme between WFEL and its German parent company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), UK welders have been transferred on secondment to the Boxer factory in Hamburg.

‘Here, staff worked on the production of Boxer vehicles for KMW’s existing customers and are now fully qualified to undertake the complex work required to produce fabricated Drive Module hulls for the UK Boxer variants,’ WEFL claimed.

Series production of British Army Boxers began in Germany in early June.

Most MIV manufacturing activity will have been transferred to the UK in 2023, principally at Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land and WFEL facilities.

As well as manufacturing armoured hulls for the MIV, WFEL will be responsible for assembly, integration and testing of 225 Boxer vehicles under the £2.3 billion ($3.17 billion) contract signed between UK MoD and the German ARTEC consortium in November 2019.

WFEL also recently awarded multiple subcontracts to the UK supply chain for the Boxer programme, including deals with Horstman, David Brown Santasalo and BCW Engineering.