Germany will spend billions of euro on Finnish armoured personell carriers (APCs).

“Patria’s billion-dollar deals to Germany would be a very significant deal for the Finnish defence industry,” says Tuija Karanko, Secretary General of the Finnish Defence and Aerospace Industries lobby group.

According to the U.S. media Bloomberg, Germany is planning to buy defence equipment from Patria for up to five billions euro. The deal would reportedly include 3,500 armoured vehicles to replace the aging Fuchs armoured vehicles.

According to Karanko, the deal would be worth almost twice the annual turnover of the Finnish defence industry. The turnover of the space and security industry was about three billion euro last year.

Patria’s communications department did not comment on the matter, as negotiations are still ongoing.

The potential deals are related to the multinational CAVS project, which is jointly developing an armoured vehicle based on Patria’s 6x6 model.

The project involves Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Germany and Denmark. The goal is, for example, to reduce production costs through joint procurement.

Tuija Karanko considers the potential deals significant also because Germany, as a large European country, has traditionally favored domestic suppliers. Germany has a strong defence industry of its own.

“I am really happy that Germany is now making such large-scale deals with the Finns,” says Karanko.

According to Karanko, interest in the Finnish defence industry has grown with Finland’s NATO membership.

Patria is half-owned by the Finnish state and half-owned by the Norwegian Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, which in turn is mainly owned by the Norwegian state.

Source: Yle (in Finnish)