The State Defense Council of Lithuania has approved the procurement of up to 936 Patria 6×6 CAVS armored transport vehicles. These are to replace, after the contract is signed in the coming year, the M113 armored personnel carriers on a tracked chassis that the Baltic country received from German stocks between 2000 and 2006. This will make it, after the seven official CAVS program members and Ukraine, the ninth user country of the vehicle.
In the future, the Lithuanian armed forces will operate alongside the Boxer armored transport vehicle, the PzH 2000 and the Leopard 2 main battle tank, another system that is also in the Bundeswehr’s inventory: Germany is a CAVS program member and has a need for up to 4,000 vehicles to replace the Fuchs armored personnel carrier. This makes sense because Germany, as the local NATO lead nation, is currently establishing Armoured Brigade 45 in Lithuania.
Lithuania Looks for Domestic Industry Involvement
So far, the Bundeswehr has ordered a total of 349 vehicles and holds an option for 527 more: ten troop transporters, 48 reconnaissance group transports (plus 14 options), 170 engineer group transports (plus 54 options), 69 mortar carriers with the NEMO turret (plus 61 options) and 52 fire-control vehicles (plus 398 options). Lithuania’s Baltic neighbor Latvia has also ordered 256 CAVS. Lithuania also expects opportunities for participation by the domestic industry from the contract.
CAVS is based on the successful AMV from the Finnish manufacturer and is a three-axle, amphibious armored vehicle with an empty weight of 15.5 tons and a permissible gross weight of 24 tons. The basic protection corresponds to STANAG 4569 Level 2 and can be upgraded to Level 4 (against 14.5 mm armor-piercing ammunition). The vehicle accommodates a crew of two to three and eight to ten passengers. It is powered by a Scania AB diesel engine delivering 294 kW (394 hp). The speed on the road exceeds 100 km/h and eight km/h in water, with a maximum range of more than 700 kilometers.
