Finnish company wins contested Swedish armoured-vehicle order

Aug 13, 2010, 14:42 GMT

Stockholm - The Swedish military Friday awarded a Finnish defence group a several-hundred-million dollar contract for armoured vehicles after it was ordered to put the contract out to tender again last year.

Finnish company Patria Land & Armament Oy welcomed the decision by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) to order 113 of its eight-wheeled vehicles, as well as other equipment, for delivery in 2014.

The order is worth some 2.5 billion kronor (336 million dollars).

Last year a Swedish court ordered FMV to put the contract out to tender again after Hagglunds, a Swedish-based group, filed a complaint about the terms of the contract.

At the time there were also fears that hundreds of jobs could be lost at a Hagglunds plant in Ornskoldsvik, northern Sweden. Hagglunds is part of defence group BAE Systems.

Patria chief executive Seppo Seppala said the Finnish group would offer 'a true Nordic solution.'

Swedish heavy-vehicle maker Scania is to deliver the engines and a Swedish steel company is to make the armour. The vehicles are to be assembled in Finland.

Carl B Hamilton, chairman of the Swedish parliament's committee on industry and trade, said 'the main thing is safety for Swedish soldiers and that the vehicle procured is most suitable for the task, for instance in Afghanistan.'

Bengt Svensson, head of the Armed Forces Army production department, said 'speedy delivery of the vehicles' was crucial and welcomed the choice of a vehicle already in use.

Patria's AMV vehicle was launched in 2004. The group, owned by the Finnish state and European aerospace and defence firm EADS, has to date contracts for some 1,300 vehicles with countries including Finland and Poland.