Patria AMV Operators

Patria AMV vehicle family had 7 customer countries as of 2012 – total number of contracted vehicles exceeded 1400 pcs. Patria AMV vehicle family has been fielded e.g. in ISAF-operation since 2007 with excellent user feed-back. Patria AMV was launched to the market in 2004. By 2009 Patria AMV 8x8 - with well over 1200 vehicles contracted and several hundreds of them delivered - was the choice of the Polish, Finnish, Slovenian, South African, Croatian and United Arab Emirates’ armies. Patria had over 2000 armored wheeled vehicles delivered. The 4th generation Patria AMV had been in serial production since 2004. The Group has received orders for around 800 Patria AMV 8x8/6x6, in Poland (690 vehicles) and in Finland (84 vehicles). Patria is a Defence and Aerospace Group with international operations. Its key business areas are armoured wheeled vehicles, mortar systems, helicopters and aircraft, and their life cycle support, as well as defence electronics systems. Patria delivers internationally competitive solutions to global markets based on own specialist know-how and partnerships. Patria is owned by the State of Finland and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V.

The Croatian Ministry of Defence on 22 January 2009 informed that they have extended the vehicle deal by additional 42 Patria AMV vehicles for the Croatian Army. Patria and Duro Dakovic Special Vehicles as Consortium partners and the Croatian Ministry of Defence signed the agreement covering 84 Patria AMV 8x8 vehicles including an option for additional vehicles already in October 2007.

According to the decision of the Administrative Court of Stockholm announced in November the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has conducted the armoured wheeled vehicle tender in accordance with the act on public procurement. Patria has received a confirmation from the FMV that the contract signed in August now has entered into force. Patria will deliver 113 AMV armoured wheeled vehicles to the Swedish Defence Forces. Additionally the contract includes an option for another 113 vehicles. The total value of the contract is some EUR 250 million. "The contract being legal now has a significant importance for Patria’s future. Patria AMV vehicle is an international state of the art product and Patria’s competence and professionalism in the defence industry is being recognised”, says Mr Seppo Seppälä, President of Patria Land & Armament Oy.

The Slovenian Ministry of Defence on 12 June 2006 announced that Patria AMV had been selected as the preferred vehicle for the Slovenian armored vehicle program. The vehicles are named Svarun in Slovenia . Final contract negotiations started immediately. The scope of the deal covered 136 wheeled armored personnel carriers in 4 different versions. The vehicles were manufactured in Finland and in Slovenia together with Slovenian co-operation partners. The deliveries were scheduled for 2007–2011, and 30 vehicles had been delivered by early 2011.

“We are extremely contented that the best vehicle was chosen. The Slovenian Ministry of Defence has made a professional and fast decision which was based on the excellent field test results in Slovenia and other countries together with our competitive offer. By choosing Patria AMV the customer will get the technologically most advanced product that is already in serial production and with over 100 AMV’s delivered up to date. In the longer term co-operation with Patria will offer new working opportunities for local partners and create success and new possibilities for the Slovenian industry. We have already fulfilled 100% of our technology transfer in Poland. Our Polish part-ner WZM delivered its first Polish made AMV to the customer in the end of 2005 and local production is going on. In March the first two of the altogether 24 AMV/AMOS mortar vehicles were delivered to the Finnish Defence Forces”, states Mr Jorma Wiitakorpi, President and CEO of Patria.

The first of the altogether 135 Patria AMV 8x8 armored vehicles ordered by the Slovenian Ministry of Defence was handed over to the representative of the said Ministry, State Secretary Uroš Krek, at the factory Indop in Šoštanj on 18 June 2009. In addition to the now delivered vehicle, the Ministry of Defence will receive another 12 Patria AMV 8x8 vehicles during June 2009. “The first delivery implies a remarkable turning point in the fulfilment of every agreement. The project will now proceed to the next phase during which Patria will deliver excellent vehicles to the Slovenian army”, says Mr Seppo Seppälä, President of Patria Land & Armament Oy. “We have passed this turning point thanks to the outstanding cooperation between the project teams and partners in Finland and in Slovenia. As part of the contractual offset obligation Patria has created the ability to manufacture Patria AMV vehicles in Slovenia. Our local partner Indop d.o.o. has shown excellent performance during the whole process.

By September 2009 a reprogramming of the Slovenian 8x8 vehicle deal had been in media focus for quite some time. Informal discussions with the MoD indicated that a substantially lower number of vehicles and an enhancement of armament would be the relevant issues. By September 2009 13 vehicles had been delivered to MoD and paid to Patria so far and approximately the same number of vehicles was at this moment in various stages of completeness and some almost ready for delivery. It has been indicated to Patria that the MoD had presently no funding for these vehicles. In order to control the capital employed in an increasing number of finished vehicles, temporary measures were imposed on the production of additional vehicles. The production was not discontinued but was concentrated on finalising those vehicles that might be delivered later in 2009 and during 2010.

On 05 September 2012 the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia (MoD), Rotis Plus d.o.o. and Patria signed a Settlement Agreement governing the AMV vehicle supply contract and the related offset agreement signed in 2006. The settlement includes a change of the fleet size to consist of 30 Svarun vehicles that have already been delivered and closing down the rest of the project and thus the supply contract. With this settlement the original offset agreement is deemed fulfilled. Patria will take over the life cycle support for the delivered vehicles from Rotis Plus.

“Defense industry needs to adapt to changes in the existing and new possible customers’ demands and possibilities. The economic situations will change and so do the technologies used. Consequently, our policy is to look for reasonable solutions in different situations whenever possible. This settlement will make it possible for all the parties to focus on their future”, says Seppo Seppälä, President, Patria Land Services. “We are proud to have the Slovenian government as one of the satisfied users of Patria AMV vehicles and will continue to provide life cycle support for them”, continues Seppälä.