The British Army has received an initial delivery of 20 vital support trucks as part of a broader effort to enhance operational logistics.
These trucks, part of a £282 million contract with Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles, are the first of 500 multipurpose vehicles that will significantly improve the Army’s ability to transport essential supplies such as ammunition, food, water, and other support materials to operational locations.
The trucks are from the HX family, a series of purpose-designed military vehicles with advanced protection capabilities to ensure the safety of personnel during operations. The procurement of these trucks follows a rapid, seven-month acquisition process, led by Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), Army Headquarters, and the Field Army.
Brigadier Matt Wilkinson from DE&S highlighted the success of the joint effort to secure these trucks quickly, stating, “The joint team across Army Headquarters, Field Army, DE&S and our industry partners have risen to the challenge of rapidly delivering capability to meet Defence requirements.”
The first batch of trucks was delivered to the 7 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps at Dalton Barracks, where troops will begin training on the vehicles. An additional 40 trucks will be used for training purposes before April 2025, with all 500 vehicles expected to be in service by September 2025.
Colonel Andy Elliott, HQ Field Army, emphasised the importance of the new vehicles in addressing logistical needs, saying, “Field Army welcome the fielding of these critical vehicles to begin to close the gap in the logistic lift capacity required to deliver and sustain war fighting at scale.” He also pointed out the importance of the lessons learned from this rapid procurement to inform future acquisitions, particularly as the Army works towards increasing its combat capability by 2027.
The timely delivery of these trucks comes as the British Army faces increasing commitments, including participation in Op MOBILISE and support for the NATO New Force Model. Rebecca Richards, Managing Director of RMMV-UK, praised the collaboration between Rheinmetall and the Ministry of Defence, calling it a “supreme effort by both teams” and a model for future bi-lateral procurements between NATO allies.
“The procurement of these trucks follows a rapid, seven-month acquisition process, led by Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), Army Headquarters, and the Field Army”
Whats made them move so quick… for a change?
Now lets be moving quicker on other equipment needs!
They are trucks, not even the army could stuff this procurement up surly?
John, the HX trucks are already designed, developed and tested….and are relatively low tech….and can be built on a line for commercial lorries that is only slightly different. Just need to be built.
Ajax, CR3 etc are a very different proposition.
Get them before a brainless politician insists that they can only buy unusable electric vehicles.
What! They are not electric what will mad Ed say?
Mad Ed? The Sun used to be catchier. Or is this the Mail’s creation?
Nope one of my own👍
Succinct and to the point, I like it 👍
The bloke is a megalomaniac with his green crusade.
Yawn, anything you don’t like does not come from the mail or GB news🤡🤡🤡
Yes that would be the Daily Mail, who made up stories that Hamza killed Israeli babies and printed knowing it to be false. Whilst simultaneously ignoring the evidence that the Israeli IDF were completely reckless in their raids, showing complete disregard to the likelihood that Israelis would be killed (in other words they really didn’t care if Israelis died as it could just be used as further propaganda against the Palestinians). That’s probably why the Daily Mail generates such reactions because it’s not actually a newspaper.
Wait for Eds retrofit with the big windmill on top and solar panels on the cargo bed.
I was surprised and equally disappointed to watch a YouTube video where several of these vehicles were dumped in a dealer’s yard along with relatively modern REME kit and many CVT’s. I just think what a bloody waste when these vehicles could be stored as war reserve. I fear these new trucks are not in addition to the current fleet but are supplied on a one-for-one basis. So, more waste, I hate to see perfect military kit thrown out to the civilian market or dealer’s weedy yards. I know it makes economic sense to up date kit but when assets are small and the threat of conflict so hot, the UK decides to cast equipment, which it may need in quantity.
Maurice. Could the kit you saw really have been perfect? We used to keep Land Rovers and trucks in service for 15 or 20 years. That is quite a long time compared to civvy practice. Fully accept that military vehicles will have done much less mileage than similar commercial vehicles.
I understand the quantity of CVT’s and Landrovers being withdrawn but those MAN’s are relatively new to the army. I think Graham, I’m a horder at heart and just hate to see good kit ditched. Happy New Year mate.
On a visit to one of my favourite Military Shows a few years ago there was an FV105 Sultan for sale, one careful owner, excellent condition, can’t remember the price but it only had 420km on the clock which I found staggering seeing as how long it was likely to have been in service.
There is lot on the military surplus websites. So much of it could be held in reserve or loaned to Ukraine. Anything that’s left at the end of the war can be returned.
I find it staggering that the forces are still selling kit when there is such a demand for everything in Ukraine and for reserve forces.
All the army needs now is equipment that these trucks can support
I am heartily sick of all the business we are giving German firms, they are not reliable allies.
You forget that we are incapable of building a lorry on our own…
Soon we will have to buy Chinese vehicles, given the way the German car industry is going.
Not true. DAF which absorbed Leyland makes a range of trucks in the UK.
While Leyland can manufacture DAF’s civilian trucks, the chassis of DAF’s military trucks, as used by the Belgium army, are all manufactured by TATRA in the Czech Republic.
I am not even sure that the Leyland plant manufactures their own cabs as you often see them on the back of trucks heading north on the M6 towards the Wirral.
Buying German is our best option for military vehicles given the lack of Industrial capacity left in the UK.
I would prefer to see German factories opening up in the UK for local production.
Those MAN SV trucks are solid pieces of kit! I’ve drove them all the time! You will likely want one of these over any other countries military counterpart. German or not I would have one of these anyday. Can also get reinforced armoured glass and cab versions too.
What about cross country performance and how reliable are they?
More reliable than the French or a MAGA controlled USA.
I believe the requirement is for around 1500 or so, if this is the same truck purchase I read of a few weeks ago.
So I hope MoD don’t stop here and grandstand job done.
More are needed.
Evening Daniele, hope you’re enjoying a peaceful festive season.
I was wondering how many we actually needed as I read the article..! 500 is great, but if it’s only 30% of the requirement then a good start is the best we can call it.
I’d be interested to know what this new NATO model is they refer to as well, that we’re apparently crafting our forces to meet…
Evening Joe.
Yes, thank you. From what snippets I have read so far, NATO want cannon on APCs ( for us that means Boxer ) and proper CS CSS to make Brigades actually usable and more than the paper formations the likes of our own 4 Bde are right now.
Logistics. Engineers. Signals. Medics. Air Defence. Engineers. Artillery. All need expanding and that will mean some Infantry Battalions cut to find the personnel. That, in the current Army ORBAT, is easier said than done, as 11 SFAB Battalions, while being the obvious candidates, are already small and include 1 Irish Guards, who I cannot see getting chopped.
SACEUR wants the ARRC, of which we are framework nation, to be one of his reserve Corps. The main warfighting parts of the army are being allocated to it, so 3 Division and supporting Brigades and Groups. My issue with this, as I have mentioned here before, is that that area of the army is now so small that maintaining the EFP Battlegroup in Estonia commits much of it. So forces committed are not a reserve.
HMG like to Grandstand, well, I call them out for it. You can double hat till the cows come home but formations cannot be in two places at once.
Alongside 3 Division, 1 Division has been enhanced to take the lighter roles, with 16, 7, and 4 Brigades, the 4 Bde that I mention above that needs augmenting to make it truly deployable.
3 Division, has 12,20 Armoured Brigades and 1 DRSB. Many, including me, want to see DRSB returned to Armoured Bde status and the DRS role given to 3 Division DAG, which in effect DRSB is. This would need the third Regiment of Tanks retained, 2 more Bns of Boxer found from somewhere, and several CS CSS formations.
We had all these until 2015 and the Strike Bde cuts, which I have outlined here many times. They spun Strike as an uplift at the time. It wasn’t, it resulted in yet more CS CSS being cut that are sorely needed now for that third Armoured Brigade.
Given the utter mess the army has made of Boxer and Ajax and ORBAT so far, the new CGS first official photo being taken at Andover in front of of the DE&I desk ( I’m sure by design ) and the Cap Badge Mafia lurking, I have no confidence whatsoever they will make any progress.
According to Wikipedia… no source cited… since 2023 we’ve already bought 500 of the 44M from the German Army that were surplus to their requirements.
Can anyone confirm? Did we keep them or pass them into Ukraine?
Since the word ‘new’ doesn’t feature in this article, it’s highly likely that they are one and the same. It wouldn’t be the first time refurbished equipment has been toted as an enhancement to capable. Which actually delivers no enhancement to capacity.
Yep we have them at our place. All left hand drive. Let’s wait for the RTCs on our UK roads. Just like when they brought the DROPS vehicles back from Germany.
These vehicles are just SV DROPS in essence. So will fit in well I think we may need ISO containers with a hook pick up system like the Germans have that way we won’t need the noisy and bulkier EPLS.
Logistics contribute massively too winning wars. Lack of lift and haulage over any terrain in any weather = defeat. Ask the Ruskfascists how well they got on North of Kyiv in 2022. Stuck on a single road getting their logistics train cut to pieces.
The Russian have so few trucks they are stuck to operating with in 40 miles of a rail head. Trucks are more important than tanks.
The Russians started with insufficient trucks, and of course they have way fewer now.
“Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics” – we know how professional the Orcs are…
The MOD still don’t use the MAN trucks what’s in service now correctly
Jeff, don’t leave us all hanging. Please explain your brief comment.
Glad we’re paying at least some attention to the tail!
Couple of questions: what’s the NATO new force model that they refer to, I’ve not heard of it. @UKDJ, might be worthy of an explainer article? Especially if we’re forming our forces around it as implied.
Also, commending great teamwork between NATO allies? I know Rheinettal are a large conglomerate, but they’re hardly a NATO member. Unless we fast tracked it through the German military?
Joe. Made a brief ref to what the army seems to be reorging itself into in my reply to you further up thread.
Project Wavell has been ongoing for some time and hopefully will result in a better structure, including sub unit enhancements and moves ( especially in Air Defence which has already happened. )
Considering how both Russia and Ukraine target supply routes, how well armoured are these?
They’re not armoured at all. Purely intended as transport vehicles.
Aren’t they also for all supplies, the uk version of the ones that got taken apart on week 1 of the Ukraine war.
I would have expected at least basic ballistic protection against small arms fire. As any war would involve special forces operations behind the front lines targeting supply routes.
This would drive up the cost per vehicle and result in fewer of them, screwing up our logistics capability far more than some Russian Gravy SEALs ever could.
Why? Special Forces generally try not to attack logistics vehicles with Small Arms fire. The preference is for calling in PGM’s, Drones, denying routes with mines, and similar, or by attacking pinch points like bridges with demolition charges. Actual Small Arms fire is more of a last resort/target of opportunity kind of thing since due to the nature of SF teams that puts them at a disadvantage (movies and CoD games notwithstanding).
Armoured Vehicles cost more, but also are fuel and maintenance intensive, increasing the logistical burden of your logistics fleet, meaning not only do you need to spend more on individual vehicles, you also need more vehicles, and given there is a limited amount of supply that can pass on any MSR, you can’t just magic up more logistics capability to meet the shortfall.
Long story short, there’s a reason why most logistics vehicles are unarmoured.
(Also the week 1 comment is a bit of a red herring, both sides still use unarmoured logistics vehicles in rear echelon roles, and both sides have a shortage of them, in part due to the the Soviet, and later Russian, reliance on rail logistics).
I’m surprised the current army is allowed to order a truck called a man,considering aircraftsman ,and able seaman ,are now names frowned upon.
This would increase costs per unit and result in even fewer purchased, degrading our logistics capability.
Considering most regiments have lost their MT sections, who’s gonna drive these new trucks?
I heard that a while back from a UKDJ member. How can a unit not have an MT section? Does not make sense.
It was Tom you heard it from!
They’re not. Tom’s been peddling this myth for months, and it’s simply not true.
But they haven’t, just been back on Merville, all the large formations still have the MT section in situ!!!! You’d info is incorrect.
Ahhhh so this lie is cropping up again from you.
I have yet to encounter a unit that does not have an MT section, and nobody has mentioned my unit loosing it’s MT section.
Soooo…. yeah I’m calling you on your bullshit. Glad to see Airborne is too.
This is a good Asset. Man SV trucks.
A lot of the land rovers have seen better days. Hopefully they will be replaced.
The MAN HX trucks for sale via Surplus are mostly the HX60 (4×4) variants, of which MOD purchased approx 5500 between 2007 and 2012. Also the first batch (approx 175) to meet ISD where not capable of being fitted with additional armour. (Easy to identify as they don’t have lots of “round holes” on the cab where it is bolted on.
Having worked on a previous project whilst at QinetiQ, I was aware that based on “Orbats” from approx 2003, the fleet make up was back then of an approx ratio of : 1 x 14 tonne, 2 x 8 tonne and 4 x 4 tonne. The SV contract was for approx 800 x 15 tonne, 1200 x 9 tonne and 5500 x 6 tonne, so clearly a massive disconnect between previous fleet configuration and then new one.
In regards to the “rapid” purchase, dont be fooled by MOD press releases. This was “common knowledge” within a large part of the “log vehicle” defence manufacturing community at DSEi in Sept 2023. MOD were looking to purchase a quantity of 8*8 Hookloaders from RMMV that were already in production for the Bundeswehr (under an existing call off contract) but not required. It has taken MOD 15 months to “tinker” with an already build vehicle before it came into service. The “major” give away is that all are Left Hand Drive and in the Bunderswehr paint scheme. There was even talk from some in DE&S about converting them to RHD, and it would cause issues for the safety case. Given the quantity of foreign LHD on our roads, another red herring and waste of time by DE&S. they could have had these in service over 6 months ago.
What a very… germain… addition to the thread.
Daniele and Graham also add so much detail.
Is “Truck” the right term? It used to be that anything over 3 ton{ne}s was a Lorry, under it that was a Truck.