Nordics consider joint procurement of infantry fighting vehicle
Amid closer military ties in northern regions, discussions have now started between Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark on acquiring a new platform of Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
If the plan move ahead as anticipated, the new Infantry Fighting Vehicle designed for cold climate snowy operations will be in place sometime between 2030 and 2040, news online Breaking Defense reports quoting sources in Norway and Sweden.
“We’re in agreement that we’re going to go together. … We want to have the same [future] platform, the same equipment. We don’t want any national, special requirements,” Major General Jonny Lindfors, Commander of the Swedish Army said to Breaking Defense.
The Nordics have since 2009 worked on streamlining different aspects of the military forces to better cooperate across borders. Joint fighter jet exercises up north take place bi-annually and the armed forces are even implementing joint uniforms.
Cooperation got a serious boost after Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine with first Finland, then Sweden, joining NATO in 2023 and 2024.
With NATO’s large-scale exercise Nordic Response in February this year, thousands of Swedish and Finnish soldiers with infantry vehicles crossed the northernmost border into Norway’s Finnmark region. The war games senario was to secure the coastline for reinforcement of allied forces.
The current CV-90 armored vehicle is made in Sweden and developed specifically for the Nordic subarctic climate. Modified versions are later sold to both Norway and Finland.
Details about next generation IFV are unknown, but electronics and weapons to combat drones are likely to be developed.
“We’re aiming for cross-development, cross-buying and cross-use, basically, because we need to align and ease up the supply chains and be able to sustain the vehicles. We’re going to fight in the same region so we see the benefits,” Jonny Lindfors said to Breaking Defense.
Oslo-talks
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb this week visited Oslo. In his speech at the banquet at the Royal Palace, the President highlighted the need to strengthen transport corridors for effective implementation of common deterrence and defense.
When Finland takes over the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers next year, our key priority will be crisis preparedness and resilience, Alexander Stubb said.
In Oslo, the Finnish President met with Norway’s Prime Minister to discuss the changing security challenges inside the Arctic Circle.
“The new security policy situation in Europe has strengthened cooperation between our countries,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after the meeting.
“More will come, not least in the north,” Støre made clear.
Teamed up in Murmansk
Støre and Stubb know each other well from the time when both served as foreign ministers. Their meeting in Oslo took place on the date 15 years after both traveled to Murmansk for the Barents Council meeting hosted by Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
At the 15-16 October 2009 tour, Stubb and Støre participated at Murmansk Economical Forum, a venue set up for the first time aimed at making international investments into north Russian shipping and industrial development.
Joint efforts to strengthen cross-border cooperation was a main topic at the meeting, the Barents Observer reported at the time. A different time.
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