It is a major event that occurred recently in France when Nexter, part of the French-German KNDS company, has won the Light VBMR (VBMR Léger) contract for the Armée de Terre (French Army).
The contract, worth more than one billion Euros, includes the procurement of around 1500 vehicles, the ILS, and the development and qualification of a dozen of versions. Renault Trucks Defense was the favourite, since Light VBMR is in the core business of the Volvo subsidiary. For RTD, it is a deep disappointment and it poses a problem because RTD has been rated at the third place after another French company, SOFRAME, highlighting a competitiveness issue.
The industrial teams of Nexter Systems, Soframe / SAFRAN, Renault Trucks Defense / Thales, and INEO, have been ranked in that way. They competed in the tender launched at the end of 2016 by the DGA (French Procurement Directorate) for Light VBMR, a Multi-Purpose Armoured Vehicle program. C4Defence has gathered exclusive information about this family of armoured vehicles.
The French Army uses more than 3500 VAB that will be replaced by only 1722 6×6 Griffon. It therefore lacks 1800 armoured vehicles to complete the fleet. This is where the Light VBMR is positioned, a 4×4 necessarily cheaper that will allow in a given budget to equip all regiments, especially those of light brigades. The contract therefore evokes a number of 1500 vehicles that could be increased to 2000 with options.
