Jun 06. Patria, Gorenje and Rotis to establish a new company for the Slovenian vehicle programme. Following the selection by the Slovenian Ministry of Defence of Patria’s AMV 8×8 vehicle as the preferred vehicle for the Slovenian Army on 12 June, 2006, Patria, Gorenje and Rotis have today announced of the establishment of a new joint venture company for the Slovenian vehicle programme. The announcement was made by the three companies in connection with a jointly arranged offset seminar for local co-operation partners in Slovenia at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, in Ljubljana.
13 Jun 06. GIAT, KMW Confirm Cooperation on New Armored Fighting Vehicle. GIAT Industries and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) will cooperate on the concept, design and production of a next-generation Medium-Size Multirole Armored
Fighting Vehicle (MSMRAV), the two companies announced at a joint press conference June 13 at the Eurosatory exhibition here. The French GIAT and German KMW are the major players in the European defense industry’s land systems business. “There’s no common European market for, and a lot of national regulations regarding the im- or export for, defense products,” said KMW Chairman Frank Haun, so GIAT and KMW signed a memorandum of understanding in March to overcome these problems. At the press conference, GIAT and KMW said the five nations that had signed a letter of intent for an MSMRAV program — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden — earlier agreed on a Common Staff Target for the vehicle. That target has been handed over to the European Defense Agency. The goal of the cooperation, Haun said, is for GIAT and KMW to become a “major supplier in future European armored fighting vehicle programs.” The program will be open to other partners and multinational approaches. The planned MSMRAV will be a six-wheeled platform weighing less than 20 tons for the complete system and with “high grow potential for following generations,” according to a joint statement from GIAT and KMW. The two companies agreed to define an initial concept for the basic platform this year with the prospect of entering the demonstrator phase in 2007.