Rolls-Royce has agreed a deal to supply more than 500 engines for the British Army’s Boxer Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV). The engine maker, which has seven UK bases including major sites in Derby and Bristol, will deliver 523 mtu Series 199 engines under the agreement.
The engines will be assembled, acceptance-tested and painted in the UK. Most of the engines for the project will be manufactured at Rolls-Royce Solutions UK in East Grinstead, West Sussex, supporting around 10 jobs at the facility, Rolls-Royce said.
Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems recently signed contracts with its partners, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann/WFEL and Rheinmetall Landsysteme/Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land, covering the delivery of engines between 2022 and 2030.
The Boxer MIV will be the first version of the vehicle equipped with Rolls-Royce’s mtu 8V 199 TE21 engine - and follows a recent order by the government for 100 extra Boxer tanks for the Army.
Knut Müller, vice president global governmental at Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems said: “The Boxer MIV project is a very important part of the modernisation of the British Army. To support this project, we have made a big effort to enable manufacturing of our proven mtu Series 199 engines in the UK for the first time. We are proud to contribute to the British Army’s mobility and agility with our engines made in Britain.
The mtu Series 199 engines are the best-selling in their power range in military application, Rolls-Royce said, with more than 2,500 in service with several armed forces. They are being used to power various armoured vehicles, including the Spanish Pizarro, Austrian ULAN and Polish OPAL.
They are also set to power extra vehicles of NATO nations, such as the British Army’s Ajax. Rolls-Royce is now planning further development of the engine with a potential power output of up to 750kw.
David Eaton, director – governmental at Rolls-Royce Solutions UK, said: “We have been working energetically with our industry partners for a number of years to reach this point and are very much looking forward to delivering our engines to power these state-of-the-art, British-built infantry vehicles.”
Last week, Rolls-Royce reported a fall in profits for the first half of 2022 as inflationary pressures, supply chain constraints and the war in Ukraine continue to pose a challenge to the business. The company saw underlying operating profits more than halve to £125m for the first six months of 2022 - down from £307m a year ago. The company said profitability should improve over the final months of 2022, however.
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