On February 16, 2024, Austrian Defense Minister Claudia Tanner, in the presence of Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, signed a contract with General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH (GDELS-Steyr, the Austrian branch of General Dynamics Corporation) for the supply of 225 new Pandur EVO wheeled armored personnel carriers (Pandur Evolution 6x6) to the Austrian army for a total of the amount of 1.8 billion euros. The delivery also includes 12 types of various specialized modules for data equipment and previously purchased 100 Pandur EVO armored personnel carriers in 12 different variants. The contract is designed to supply the machines themselves and modules for them from the end of 2025 to 2032. The option to the contract includes the possible supply of another 156 machines.
Signing of a contract with General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH (GDELS-Steyr, the Austrian branch of General Dynamics Corporation) for the supply of 225 new Pandur EVO wheeled armored personnel carriers (Pandur Evolution 6x6) to the Austrian army. Vienna, 02/16/2024 (c) Austrian Ministry of Defense
Recall that the Pandur Evolution (EVO) armored personnel carrier has been developed and manufactured for the Austrian army since 2018 by the Austrian branch of General Dynamics Corporation - General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH (GDELS-Steyr, the former Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug, which separated from Steyr-Daimler-Puch in in 1998 and acquired by General Dynamics in 2003). The Pandur EVO is actually a modified version with a 6x6 wheelbase of the Pandur II armored personnel carrier with an 8x8 wheelbase, previously supplied by GDELS-Steyr to Portugal and the Czech Republic. In 2015, General Dynamics actually curtailed the marketing of the Pandur II and sold the full rights to this machine to the notorious Czech company Excalibur Army (part of the Excalibur Group, which later became the Czechoslovak Group), which now builds Pandur II machines at a specially created enterprise controlled by the Czechoslovak Group Tatra Defense Vehicle in Koprzivnica. In fact, however, the production of the Pandur II remained at the GDELS-Steyr plant in Vienna (Simmering), from where machine kits for assembly in the Czech Republic are supplied, and then production of the Pandur EVO armored personnel carrier for the Austrian army was started in Vienna. The designation "EVO" was chosen so as not to infringe on the rights sold by Excalibur Army to the Pandur II brand.
In December 2016, the Austrian Ministry of Defense awarded GDELS-Steyr a contract worth 105 million euros for the development, testing and supply of two experimental and 34 first production new Pandur EVO armored personnel carriers, which were delivered to the Austrian army in 2018-2020. In January 2021, the Austrian Ministry of Defense issued a new contract worth 106 million euros for the purchase of 30 more Pandur EVO armored personnel carriers (including some vehicles in command and staff and medical versions), delivered in 2022-2023, and at the end of 2021, a contract worth 145 million euros was issued for another 36 vehicles with delivery in 2024-2025, which brought the total number of ordered production vehicles to 100 units. In the Austrian army, the Pandur EVO is officially designated as the Pandur A4.
Compared to the Pandur I armored personnel carriers (also used by the Austrian Army since the 1990s), the Pandur EVO has increased weight, enhanced protection, including mine protection, and a 455 hp Cummins engine. The Pandur EVO has a capacity of 12 people, including three crew members. The first 100 vehicles previously ordered by the Austrian army are equipped with a remotely controlled WS4 Mk 2 Panther combat module with a 12.7mm M2NV machine gun and a 7.62mm MG74 machine gun supplied by ESL Advanced Information Technology (ESLAIT) GmbH, an Austrian division of the Israeli company Elbit Systems. Most special versions of the machine should be equipped with the same modules. Currently, a variant of the WS4 Mk 2 Panther module with a 40 mm H&K GMG automatic grenade launcher with programmable shots is being tested, and the main task of such an option is considered to be the fight against small UAVs.
With the ordered special modules, the Austrian army plans to have 325 Pandur EVO armored personnel carriers in 12 different versions, including a linear armored personnel carrier, a command and staff vehicle, a medical vehicle, an engineering vehicle, an ATGM carrier, a reconnaissance vehicle (with an electron-optical station on a lifting mast), a 120 mm self-propelled mortar with an automated turret (the type has not been selected, 16 units are planned to be purchased), an advanced artillery and aviation guidance vehicle, a communications vehicle, a radio intelligence vehicle, and an electronic warfare vehicle.
The twelfth option should be the Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 anti-aircraft artillery complex based on Pandur EVO with the installation of Rheinmetall group combat modules with a 30 mm Oerlikon KCE automatic cannon with programmable shots, and also installed MBDA Mistral 3 anti-aircraft guided missiles. One of the main tasks of the complex is also called the fight against UAVs and precision-guided munitions. Under this contract, the Rheinmetall Group has ordered 36 Skyranger 30 complexes, with Austria becoming their first customer. Deliveries of them to the Austrian army should begin from the end of 2026.
It is worth noting that in June 2022, the US Army issued General Dynamics Land Systems (a division of General Dynamics Corporation) a contract worth $ 55.85 million for the supply of an undisclosed number of Pandur EVO (6x6) wheeled armored personnel carriers as a new generation of armored vehicles AGMS (Armored Ground Mobility System) for the US Special Operations Command. Deliveries under the contract should be made by mid-2025 and will be carried out from the Austrian company GDELS-Steyr.
Signing of a contract with General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH (GDELS-Steyr, the Austrian branch of General Dynamics Corporation) for the supply of 225 new Pandur EVO wheeled armored personnel carriers (Pandur Evolution 6x6) to the Austrian army. Vienna, 02/16/2024 (c) Austrian Ministry of Defense
Proposed options for the Austrian Army of the new Pandur EVO wheeled armored personnel carriers (Pandur Evolution 6x6) (c) Austrian Ministry of Defense
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