The Swedish Defense Materiel Administration has signed a framework agreement with the Italian company Iveco Defense Vehicles (IDV) to provide up to 3,000 light vehicles to the Swedish Armed Forces.
The initial order will be for 400 Light Multi-Purpose Vehicles (LMPV) of the MUV 4×4 (Military Utility Vehicle) type at a cost of SEK 850 million ($79 million). Iveco will also provide Sweden with associated maintenance and services.
The Framework Agreement extends over four years (from 2023 until 2027) with the option to extend the agreement for an additional five years.
"With these vehicles, the Armed Forces get a modern capability that complements existing capabilities within the Army and the Home Guard and to some extent replaces certain capabilities from the Armed Forces old faithful servants in the war organization, the Tgb 11 and 13 [known outside Sweden as the Volvo Cross Country C303]," Sweden's Material Administration Army Project Manager Michael Helander said in a statement.
The first delivery to the Armed Forces will take place at the end of 2024 and the majority of the vehicles will be delivered in 2025.
What is MUV 4x4?
The MUV 4x4 is the successor to Iveco's M40E15-WM purpose-built vehicle. The latest version is touted as rugged, mobile and deployable in austere environments in temperatures from ranging from minus 32 to plus 49 degrees Celsius. It is NATO-compatible can carry payloads weighing up to 4,000 kilograms.
The MUV 4×4 is available in 12 different variants including troop transport vehicles, medical variant vehicles, communication vehicles, logistic vehicles, and dog transport (with a special compartment for service dogs), all with several combinations in terms of gross vehicle weight, chassis, cab, engine and driveline.
Sweden's Military Buildup
Over the past decade, Sweden has been engulfed in a militarist push as Cold War-era rhetoric has started to return. The nation in effect abandoned all pretence to non-alignment as it last year applied to NATO and is en route to raising its military expenditure to the alliance's target level of 2 percent – a process that may take until the late 2020s.
In recent years, the Swedish military has adopted a more generous spending plan envisaging the opening and reopening of military sites and units decommissioned after the end of the Cold War during the short window when Sweden was reaping "peace dividends." In 2019, for example, Sweden re-inaugurated its giant underground naval base in the southern part of the Stockholm archipelago at Musko. The base, dug inside a rock in the Sixties, was designed to provide Swedish vessels with subterranean docks safe from attack.
The funds also underpin the procurement of costly materiel, such as the US-made Patriot air defense systems.
Furthermore, the strategic Baltic Sea island of Gotland was re-militarized and conscription was reintroduced - all accompanied by the incessant talk of the "Russian threat" and borderline comical attempts to find a "Russian trace" in all the ongoing events such as alleged submarine sightings or making it the scapegoat for economic woes.