On June 2, 2023, the Finnish Patria Group announced that it had signed a contract with the Logistics Command of the Finnish Armed Forces to supply it with 91 new Patria 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carriers as part of the multinational CAVS (Common Armored Vehicle Systems) program led by Finland, which also involves Latvia, Sweden and Germany. The option to the contract includes another 70 cars. Deliveries of armored personnel carriers to the Finnish army should be started as early as 2023.
One of three pre-production samples of the new Patria 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carrier under the multinational program Common Armored Vehicle System (CAVS) performed for the Finnish Armed Forces, June 2022 (from) Patria
Recall that in January 2020, the Ministries of Defense of Finland and Latvia signed an agreement on the joint development of a new type of armored personnel carrier for the armies of these countries based on the armored platform of the Patria group in a variant with a 6x6 wheel formula. In April 2020, Estonia joined this agreement, but in the future it did not express interest in developing the program, so in October 2020, the agreement on a joint R&D program for an armored personnel carrier within the framework of the project, designated Common Armored Vehicle System (CAVS), was signed only by Latvia and Finland, and the Patria group. Sweden also joined the CAVS program on June 1, 2022, and Germany in April 2023 .
Presented for the first time in 2019 by the Finnish Patria group, the new 6x6 armored platform, according to the Finnish manufacturer itself, "combines all the best features" of its main current product in the form of the Patria AMV armored personnel carrier with an 8x8 wheel formula and the old Finnish Sisu\Patria XA armored personnel carriers with a 6x6 wheel formula, and is "simplified and cheaper" compared to with Patria AMV. This platform should not be confused with the three-axle variants of the AMV armored personnel carrier previously offered by Patria, which did not find customers. As can be judged, in fact, the new Patria 6x6 armored platform is a modified version of the new production proposed by Patria in 2016 under the designation HA-220 variant of modernization of previously built Pasi HA-180 armored personnel carriers with a 6x6 wheel formula - that is, in fact Patria, represented by its new 6x6 armored platform, now offers a reincarnation of the HA series.
The XA-180 (Pasi) armored personnel carriers with a 6x6 wheel formula were originally developed for the Finnish army by the Finnish company Sisu Auto and have been mass-produced at its plant in Hamenlinna since 1984. Since 1999, the production of heavier modified armored personnel carriers of the XA-200 series has been carried out. In total, up to 1200 machines of the XA series were manufactured by 2004, which were also exported to Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland. In 1997, when the Patria state group was formed, the Sisu Auto company transferred to it the armored personnel carrier production plant in Hamenlinna, along with all the rights to the XA series cars. Now the production of new Patria 6x6 armored personnel carriers has begun at the plant in Hamenlinna.
On August 30, 2021, the Ministries of Defense of Latvia and Finland and the Patria Group signed a framework agreement on the joint production and acquisition of 6x6 armored personnel carriers under the CAVS program. At the same time, the Latvian Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the Patria Group in the amount of about 200 million euros for the purchase of more than 200 Patria 6x6 armored personnel carriers, including technical support and training of personnel. The delivery of armored personnel carriers to the armed forces of Latvia is planned from 2021 to 2029, and the first production vehicles were delivered in October 2021.
At the same time, the Finnish Ministry of Defense in 2021 signed with the Patria Group only a memorandum of understanding on the intention to order 160 new 6x6 armored personnel carriers in 2023, stating that "specific contractual agreements will be related to clarifying the implementation of the program for additional mobility development of the Finnish ground forces." In June 2022, three APCs of this type were delivered to the Finnish army for military tests, and now, in accordance with the memorandum, the first serial order for 91 APCs followed with an option for another 70.
In April 2023, the Swedish defense procurement agency FMV also signed a contract with Patria for the purchase of the first 20 Patria 6x6 armored personnel carriers for the Swedish army under the CAVS program, with deliveries starting in 2023. In the Swedish armed forces, these vehicles received the designation Pansarterrängbil 300. In total, the Swedish army plans to purchase "several hundred" of these armored personnel carriers in the future. The Patria 6x6 makes extensive use of Swedish-made components and systems, including the armored steel hull and the Scania diesel engine.
Germany's accession to the CAVS program actually also marked the choice of the Patria 6x6 platform for the planned replacement in the German Bundeswehr of the TPz 1 Fuchs (6x6) wheeled armored personnel carriers in service since the late 1970s.
