Slovenia will cancel the agreement on Boxer, look for other armored vehicles
WARSAW, Poland – The Slovenian Defense Ministry has announced that the government will cancel a deal to purchase 45 Boxer armored vehicles with associated equipment and services worth a total of 343.4 million euros ($343 million) from the Intergovernmental Organization for Common Armaments Cooperation (OCCAR). ).
Instead, Ljubljana plans to explore other options to purchase eight-wheel drive vehicles for its ground forces, officials say.
“By the end of the year, the ministry will prepare a solution for the development of the capabilities of the medium battalion combat group and the medium combat-reconnaissance battalion,” the ministry announced.
The latest decision is based on the findings of the internal audit, which was commissioned by Defense Minister Marjan Šarec after the new government took over in Ljubljana last June.
“There is a trend of buying production vehicles, when you buy a vehicle, put it on the road and drive it. You don’t buy a vehicle and you have to buy this and that,” the minister told local RTV Slovenia.
Šarec was referring to the chosen specification of the boxer, which, according to the findings of the internal audit, did not include all the equipment required by the ministry in the price of the vehicle.
If Slovenia agreed to purchase 45 boxers, the ministry would be forced to buy at least 24 more armored vehicles in order to ensure sufficient capabilities for the medium battalion battle group, the defense minister said.
In the Defense White Paper of Slovenia 2020, it is written that, within the framework of the country’s commitments to NATO, the first battalion combat group should be established by 2027, and the second by 2030.
Meanwhile, Matej Tonin, Sarč’s predecessor and currently an opposition member of parliament, criticized the ministry’s decision. On September 18, Tonin tweeted that the Slovenian Army had confirmed all the tactical-technical features and configurations of the vehicle chosen by the previous government.
Like many Eastern European allies, Slovenia also accelerated efforts to purchase new armored vehicles for its army after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Polish correspondent for Defense News.