The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) notified the Ministry of National Defence that all 6 OCCAR Member States in the Board of Supervisors (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) gave consent for Lithuania to join its Boxer Programme. The expertise of the international organisation will help Lithuania implement the acquisition of the Boxer infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) efficiently.
Joining the Programme is one of the key steps as Lithuania seeks to equip two battalions of the Land Force with the Boxer IFVs.
Once a member of the Boxer Programme, Lithuania will empower OCCAR to later negotiate the procurement on Lithuania’s behalf.
Lithuania will authorise OCCAR to assess the contract in detail, to supervise the execution of the project, and to provide expert assessment of the quality of the procured IFVs.
As part of the Boxer Programme Lithuania will benefit from all the advantages offered: smaller development and maintenance costs, sharing technologies, and better interoperability with other participants of the programme. The overall cost also diminishes because large-scale orders are made jointly by several countries.
On 11 December 2015 the State Defence Council approved the German Artec manufacturer’s Boxer IFVs to meet the needs of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
The initial bidder list included 12 offers. The Lithuanian Armed Forces selected the Boxer IFV due to the preferred quality-price ration.
The first delivery is expected to be brought to the Lithuanian Armed Forces as early as 2017.