Australian Army’s Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle Takes on the Beach

Bron: Military Leak

The Australian Army’s new Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) was put to the test during the Amphibious Task Group’s Exercise Sea Wader 2020.

The Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) is a development of the baseline Boxer designed to fulfil the Australian LAND 400 Phase 2 requirement. It mounts the Rheinmetall Defence Lance modular turret system (MTS) fitted with the MK30-2/ABM cannon. The vehicle completed a series of beach training scenarios, including driving over sand, vehicle recoveries, embarking and disembarking from LCM8s and Navy Light Landing Craft, and transiting to and from Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Adelaide. Exercise Sea Wader 2020 enabled newly qualified Boxer CRV crews from the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment to practice operating in a coastal setting and increase their amphibious capability.

The first of 25 Boxers – 13 multipurpose and 12 turreted reconnaissance variants – that are being manufactured in Germany through to 2021 to meet an early Australian capability requirement for familiarisation and training, was formally handed over to the army in September 2019. Before delivery the Boxers are being modified locally with Australian-specific communications and battlefield management systems and fitted temporarily with the Kongsberg Protector RWS that previously equipped Australian ASLAVs deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Production of the balance of 186 platforms – a mix of reconnaissance, command-and-control, joint fires, surveillance, ambulance, and battlefield repair and recovery variants – will begin in late 2022 at RDA’s AUD170 million Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE).