Finnish defense giant, Patria, introduced its latest 6x6 vehicle, the cornerstone of the multinational CAVS Common Armored Vehicle System Program between Finland, Sweden, Germany and Latvia, at MSPO held earlier this month in Poland.
“Finland is the country where we originally come from, but currently Patria is located in quite many European countries and adding Japan as our next location also outside of Europe,” the executive vice president of Patria’s global division, Jukka Holkeri stated in an interview with defenshere.com.
Holkeri also explained that the company is active in three fields saying “One is defense systems like the vehicles that we've got in the background, mortar systems and so on. The other one is lifecycle support, maintenance upgrades and so on for air, land and sea operations as well as cyber and so on. And the third one is battlefield systems. So, we're talking about command and control, intelligence, surveillance and so on Systems.”
He also mentioned that Patria is global known for its vehicles, one of which is its 6x6 vehicle, stating “our new 6x6 vehicle, which is the cornerstone of the multinational CAVS Common Armored Vehicle System Program between Finland, Sweden, Germany and Latvia. These countries are together developing and purchasing this type of vehicles,” he further explained “They are already in service in Latvia and and there is a very, very big demand in in Europe for these vehicles.”
Holkeri was also asked about Partia’s world renowned 8x8 vehicles, which he answered to “Our 8x8 which is our AMV vehicle in different versions, has been in operations for 20 years roughly, and here now that we are in Poland, happy to say that the Polish partner of ours and also has been producing these vehicles for about 20 years now and still continues to produce them for the Polish services.”
He also explained that the company’s 8x8 vehicles haven’t only been used in Poland but also in eight other countries that have chosen the vehicle, adding “Latest one now being Japan. We just signed a license agreement to produce these vehicles in Japan. The newest generation called AMV XB. Slovakia bought 76 vehicles last year and so on. So, it's very, very much going strong still the AMV vehicle as well.”
Finally, Holkeri talked about Patria’s presence in the middle east, where he stated “While our our equipment is already in service in in some Middle Eastern countries and obviously that's a very important market to us and we're looking for next steps. Also, the procurement programs are often long. They take time and we are happy to participate in some of them already at this point of time.”
