As the Finnish Patria group announced on April 1, 2025, Denmark joined the multinational program for the development and production of the Common Armored Vehicle System (CAVS) wheeled armored personnel carrier, signing a corresponding technical agreement, and becoming the fifth country participating in the program after Finland, Latvia, Sweden and Germany. On the same day, the Danish Ministry of Defense announced the conclusion of a contract with the Patria Group for the purchase of 130 Patria 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carriers developed under the CAVS program for the Danish Land Forces.
The Patria 6x6 armored personnel carrier, equipped with a Kongsberg RS-4 remote-controlled combat module with a 12.7mm M2NV machine gun. Rovaniemi (Finland), March 2025 (c) Paolo Valpolini / www.edrmagazine.eu
The total value of the contract, concluded under an accelerated procedure through the newly created Accelerationsfonden for the accelerated build-up of the combat potential of the Danish Armed Forces, is 1.9 billion Danish crowns ($275 million). It is reported that the first armored personnel carriers will be delivered to Denmark in 2025 for the training of personnel, and the main deliveries will begin in 2026. In the Danish army, the Patria 6x6 APC should initially be equipped with the light infantry battalion of the 2nd brigade, and some of the vehicles will be supplied to the 1st heavy Brigade in special variants - command and staff vehicles, communications vehicles, electronic warfare vehicles and medical vehicles.
The purchase of armored personnel carriers is carried out in accordance with the agreement reached by the Parliament and the Danish political forces on strengthening the combat potential of the Danish armed forces, according to which an additional 50 billion Danish kroner (25 billion kroner each in 2025 and 2026) was allocated to a specially formed Acceleration Fund for this purpose. In addition, an amount of 10 billion kronor is allocated annually for the period 2027-2033 to cover costs arising from decisions taken within the framework of the Acceleration Fund, including new purchases, increased personnel, buildings, etc.
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 Finnish Patria group in a variant with a 6x6 wheel formula. In April 2020, Estonia joined this agreement, but later it expressed no interest in developing the program (eventually purchasing Turkish armored personnel carriers), so in October 2020, an agreement on a joint R&D program for an armored personnel carrier under the Common Armored Vehicle System (CAVS) project was signed only by Latvia and Finland., and the Patria group. Sweden also joined the CAVS program on June 1, 2022, and Germany joined in April 2023.
On August 30, 2021, the Ministries of Defense of Latvia and Finland and Patria signed a framework agreement for the joint production and acquisition of 6x6 armored personnel carriers under the CAVS program, which became the first production contract for these vehicles. The first serial Patria 6x6 armored personnel carriers were delivered to Latvia in October 2021. Patria declares that by April 2025 (before Denmark joins) It has already received orders from the participating countries of the CAVS program for a total of more than 850 Patria 6x6 armored personnel carriers and delivered more than 200 of them.
Introduced for the first time in 2019 by the 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 wheelbase and the old Finnish Sisu\Patria XA family armored personnel carriers with a 6x6 wheelbase, and is "simplified and cheaper" compared to Patria AMV. This platform should not be confused with the three-axle versions of the AMV armored personnel carrier previously offered by Patria, which did not find customers. 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, an upgrade option for previously built Pasi HA-180 series armored personnel carriers with a 6x6 wheelbase - that is, in fact, Patria, represented by its new 6x6 armored platform, offers a reincarnation of the HA series.
The XA-180 (Pasi) series 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, heavier modified armored personnel carriers of the XA-200 series have been produced. In total, up to 1,200 XA series machines 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 the plant for the production of armored personnel carriers in Hamenlinna, along with all the rights to the XA series machines.
