Slovakia has chosen BAE Systems’ CV90 Mark IV as the country’s new infantry fighting vehicle, the company said on June 28.
“The joint bid from the Government of Sweden and BAE Systems was filed earlier this year by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and BAE Systems Hägglunds,” BAE Systems said. “Following the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic’s feasibility report last month, the CV90 was placed in both first and second position (in two different turret variants) when measured against all requirements for the IFV program. Negotiations will now begin to finalize a production contract before the end of the year.”
BAE Systems said that it will provide multiple CV90 Mark IV versions to comply with Slovakia’s requirements for up to 152 infantry fighting vehicles, including several turreted versions and engineer and recovery variants, which are among 15 the company said that it offers.
About 1,300 CV90s are in service in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, per BAE Systems.
In 2019, BAE Systems bowed out of the U.S. Army’s first try at an Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) competition in which BAE Systems had offered the CV90 Mark IV.
Last July, the Army awarded nearly $300 million in contracts to BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems [GD], Oshkosh Defense [OSK], Rheinmetall and armor supplier Point Blank Enterprises for Phase 2 of the OMFV program to work on refining their platform concepts over a period of 15 months (Defense Daily, July 23 2021).