German army wants to order 100 Boxer vehicles from KNDS, Spiegel says

By Ludwig Burger and Rachel More

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany's armed forces are in talks to order about 100 Boxer armoured vehicles from German-French defence contractor KNDS for use by Ukraine, news magazine Spiegel reported on Friday without specifying its sources.

A first tranche of 80 vehicles will likely cost more than 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), to be financed from the defence military's 100-billion-euro special fund created after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Spiegel added.

A KNDS spokesperson said there was no contract at this time and declined to comment further.

The possible order for 100 Boxers will probably include 80 wheeled self-propelled RCH155 howitzers, the report said, adding that the German parliament would likely vote on the deal during the fourth quarter of this year.

Asked for comment, the German defence ministry said it had submitted an invitation to tender with KNDS for the Boxer and RCH155 models, but declined to elaborate on a possible deal.

The eight-wheel Boxer vehicles are more nimble than tracked tanks.

The talks come after a recent order by Germany for 105 KNDS-manufactured Leopard 2 A8 tanks for 2.9 billion euros, which was reported by Reuters last month and confirmed by the defence ministry on Thursday.

The defence ministry's transaction with KNDS has wider implications because it is part of a possible framework order for over 300 Boxers that Britain and other NATO member states could draw on at a later stage, Spiegel added.

($1 = 0.9185 euros)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Miranda Murray and Mark Heinrich)