Sweden Nears FMS-Style Vehicle Deal With Austria

The Swedish government has opened negotiations to sell BvS10 all-terrain armored vehicles built by BAE Systems Hagglunds to Austria in a US-style foreign military sales arrangement.

The deal could see 20 new BvS10s added to a Swedish military order for 102 vehicles announced last December by the Stockholm government.

Price, delivery, schedule and other issues have yet to be resolved, but a joint procurement of new vehicles holds out the potential for reduced procurement and lifecycle costs, the Swedish Government said in a statement released Jan 23.

In addition, talks are underway over the possible purchase by Austria of a similar number of refurbished machines from Swedish military stocks.

The vehicles being procured under the government-to-government deal are destined for deployment with Austrian mountain troops.

Austria would become the fifth customer for the BvS10, joining Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands and France.

BAE said it expects to be under contract to add the additional vehicles to the existing Swedish production run later this year. Sweden ordered 48 vehicles in January 2012 and exercised an option for a further 102 machines in December. The second part of the deal was worth $120 million.

At the time of the order, BAE said the production run for the Swedes at its Ornskoldsvik factory would last until 2015. [via]