Defence Minister Jeremy Quin recently visited Telford-based RBSL, as the company prepared to start production of the ‘state of the art’ Boxer armoured vehicle for the British Army.

RBSL (www.rbsl.com) will build, assemble, integrate and test Boxer structures at its Telford facility. The company was named as one of the vehicle’s manufacturers by ARTEC GmbH — the consortium awarded a £2.3 billion contract last year to deliver 500 Boxer 8¥8 high mobility network-enabled armoured vehicles.

Around 1,000 jobs will be sustained in the UK through this work, and around 450 of these jobs will be at RBSL; the first vehicles should be delivered to the British Army in 2023.

Mr Quin said: “I’m pleased to see first-hand how the Boxer programme is progressing at RBSL. Each element of the supply chain is important in providing the army with the new armoured vehicles.”

He was given a tour of the company’s site and met some of the workforce, including newly recruited apprentices.
“The Boxer programme is supported by a nation-wide supply chain, and the vehicles will form part of the British Army’s strike brigades — new units set up to deploy rapidly over long distances across varied terrains.

"Initially, the Army will buy a mixture of the troop-carrying Boxer ambulances, command vehicles and a variant designed to carry military equipment.

"The programme aims to source more than 60%, of the vehicle content (by value) from UK suppliers, ensuring that the UK maintains the manufacturing and engineering expertise to support the vehicles.”