At the biennial defense exhibition DVD at the British test site UAC Millbrook, the US company Moog presented last week a module with an anti-air turret for the GTK Boxer. Moog used for this a variant of its Reconfigurable Integrated Weapons Platform (RiWP). This carries an externally powered XM914 autocannon in the 30 x 113 mm calibre, an M240 machine gun in 7.62 x 51 mm, a four-round launcher for Stinger air-defence missiles, and four for a total of 15 laser-guided 70-mm rockets.
RiWP is already in service with the US Armed Forces in a drone-defence variant of the AGM-114L Hellfire instead of the 70-mm rockets on the Stryker Sergeant Stout variant, and also on the Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System (M-LIDS) in combination with an intercept version of Raytheon’s Coyote drone on the 4×4 platform M-ATV. Moog had previously presented the weapons station in Britain with both the XM914 and in a version for weapons the size of the Bushmaster Mk 44 autocannon in 30 x 173 mm calibre.
Britain Acquires Boxer for Ten Different Roles
The module shown now was assembled in Britain within a few weeks in collaboration with Boxer co‑manufacturer KNDS in the United Kingdom, according to the company. The background is a need of the British Army for a drone-defence system. The manufacturer notes that the system can also be adapted to the role of general close-range air defence or to the Army’s requirement for a vehicle for anti-tank warfare with the Brimstone air-to-surface missile. Likewise, the number of 70-mm four-launcher Night Wraith could be doubled, presumably by replacing the Stinger launcher.
Last year the British Army took delivery of its first Boxer manufactured in-country. In 2019 Britain awarded the ARTEC manufacturer consortium a contract for initially 523 vehicles. In 2022 this was increased by 100, with the intended use of the type spanning ten different roles. In addition, at least 96 RCH-155 wheeled howitzers. For the British production under ARTEC licence, the joint venture Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land established a manufacturing line in Telford, Shropshire.
