On May 11, 2022, Slovenian Defense Minister Matej Tonic signed a memorandum of understanding in Munich with the European Procurement Organization for Joint Cooperation in the field of armaments (Organization Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement - OCCAR) on Slovenia's accession to the Boxer wheeled armored personnel carrier program. Based on the signed memorandum, OCCAR signed a contract with the ARTEC GmbH consortium (uniting Rheinmetall Defense and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann/KMW, now KNDS) for the supply of 45 GTK Boxer (8x8) armored personnel carriers to the Slovenian Ministry of Defense.
GTK Boxer (Vilkas) armored personnel carriers with a modified version of the Israeli Rafael Samson Mk 2 combat module of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Slovenia has signed a contract for the purchase of a Boxer in a similar configuration (with) the Ministry of National Defense of Lithuania
The contract value is 281.5 million euros plus 61.93 million euros of VAT. Including (excluding VAT) the cost of the 45 complete Boxer armored personnel carriers with weapons themselves is 238.7782 million euros, the cost of the basic package of technical support and training is 23.47456 million euros, the cost of design work on completion and administrative expenses is 19.24724 million euros. The acquisition of Boxer by Slovenia through OCCAR should standardize procurement and service procedures for the Slovenian side with the rest of the recipients of these machines, the main of which are the land forces of Germany and the Netherlands.
The delivery of vehicles to the Slovenian army will be made from 2023 to 2026. The Boxer armored personnel carriers purchased by Slovenia will be almost identical in their configuration to the machines supplied Lithuania (Vilkas variant), and will also be equipped with a modified version of the Israeli Rafael Samson Mk 2 combat module with a 30 mm ATK Orbital Bushmaster Mk 44 automatic cannon, a paired 7.62mm machine gun and a Rafael Spike-LR retractable ATGM launcher.
At the beginning of 2018, the Ministry of Defense of Slovenia decided to purchase Boxer armored personnel carriers to equip the Medium Battalion Combat Group (Srednje bataljonske bojne skupine), which was supposed to be formed as part of the Slovenian army, which should be used outside the republic as part of NATO contingents, and initially it was planned to purchase 48 vehicles in a linear version with a 30-mm cannon and eight in the version of a 120-mm self-propelled mortar. However, as a result, pre-contract negotiations stretched for four years, and 120-mm self-propelled mortars were not included in the purchase. It is reported that in the future it is possible to purchase another battalion set of Boxer armored personnel carriers to equip one of the motorized infantry battalions of the Slovenian army.
Recall that this is the second attempt by Slovenia to purchase modern armored personnel carriers with a wheel formula of 8x8. In 2006, Slovenia signed a contract with the Finnish Patria group for the supply and joint production of 135 Patria AMV armored personnel carriers in various versions (Slovenian designation SKOV Svarun). However, due to corruption proceedings initiated later on the supply of this contract, dissatisfaction of the Slovenian military with the characteristics of AMV vehicles and cuts in the Slovenian military budget, the Slovenian Ministry of Defense terminated the contract with Patria in 2012 after receiving only 30 AMV armored personnel carriers. According to a number of Slovenian sources, the received 30 AMV vehicles are supposed to be converted into auxiliary armored vehicles (command and staff, medical and engineering) to equip the Medium Battalion Combat Group.
Lithuania, under a contract with OCCAR dated August 2016, received 88 Boxer armored personnel carriers performed by Vlkas with the Rafael Samson Mk 2 combat module, delivered from 2019 to 2021, as well as two training vehicles. In April 2022, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense announced that it had held pre-contract negotiations with representatives of OCCAR and the ARTEC consortium regarding the purchase of an additional "more than 120" Boxer wheeled armored personnel carriers (Vilkas) for the Lithuanian armed forces. The contract can be signed this summer, with deliveries from 2023 to the end of 2024. It is stated that some of the vehicles planned for purchase under the new contract by Lithuania will also receive weapons in the form of a Rafael Samson Mk 2 combat module, and some will receive combat modules with a 12.7 mm machine gun.
