Finnish firm Patria has signed a Grant Agreement (GA) with the European Commission (EC) to commence the next generation armoured vehicles development.
Patria is the industrial coordinator of European Future Highly Mobile Augmented Armoured Systems (FAMOUS) consortium.
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The company noted that this funding agreement is valued at €9m. It allows the consortium members, comprising 19 EU defence companies, to begin the development work of the next generation armoured vehicles.
The consortium members include Patria, DIEHL Defence, Indra, Millog, Nexter, and others.
On 14 December, the FAMOUS consortium was officially launched, alongside participation from EC, EU member states representatives and other companies.
Patria Land Business Unit president Jussi Järvinen said: “It is great to have this project and its development work now officially underway.
“This FAMOUS consortium is a unique and innovative approach to develop areas of next generation technology that can be utilised in a variety of armoured vehicles and systems – eventually in actual use.”
The project secured the financing from the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), under which under the FAMOUS consortium operates.
EDIDP programme is designed to aid the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the defence industry in the EU.
The FAMOUS programme seeks to develop future technologies that improve ground combat capabilities in the field of mobility, hybrid operation, as well as power generation and energy storage, situational awareness, robotics, command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) solutions and other solutions related to modern life cycle support.
In July this year, Patria joined an EDIDP programme to develop a next-generation radar network system to boost maritime surveillance capabilities.
