Two countries, one customer – this clearly involved a lot of bilateral consultation. Though Norway and Sweden are bound together by many ties, ultimately each country has its own needs. While Sweden was content with comparatively simple features, pretty much the opposite applied to Norway.

When the contract was first signed, it originally called for 23 different kinds of trucks, two types of trailers and one flat-rack variant. Over the years, however, the numbers grew to 38 different truck types and four trailer variants – sometimes in extremely small numbers. As a company, we had to learn along the way”, reports Dr Alexander Abeler, Senior Vice President Programs at Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV), who has accompanied the project ever since the end of 2015, noting that “stipulations in the contract covering the development process meant that we basically had to start from scratch when developing new vehicle variants.”

Over the years, however, the numbers grew to 38 different truck types and four trailer variants – sometimes in extremely small numbers. As a company, we had to learn along the way”, reports Dr Alexander Abeler, Senior Vice President Programs at Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV), who has accompanied the project ever since the end of 2015, noting that “stipulations in the contract covering the development process meant that we basically had to start from scratch when developing new vehicle variants.”

The contract has a long prehistory: back in 2008 a project group from the Norwegian armed forces drew up a catalogue of requirements for new military logistic vehicles. RMMV was awarded the order, though not before Norway pulled Sweden onboard as a co-customer. Finally, on 31 March 2014, the Norwegian procurement agency NDMA and its Swedish opposite number, the FMV in Stockholm, concluded a framework agreement with RMMV for the supply of military logistic vehicles through to 2025. The first call-off from the framework agreement was for 335 HX high-mobility trucks and TGS-Mil militarized trucks, plus trailers.

A genuine challenge

The models all had one thing in common: highly elaborate technical requirements had to be met and milestone documentation prepared before production could start. From cold test chambers to electromagnetic compatibility, there were some six or seven hundred technical requirements for every vehicle.

A single example – for a truck with a crane – goes to show just how different the approach of the two contracting nations could be. “Norway needed the crane up front, Sweden wanted it in the back. What’s more, the Norwegians wanted protected and unprotected versions of the same vehicle”, recounts Alexander Abeler. Thus, what began as one vehicle turned out to be four, some of them armoured per customer requirements.

What makes Alexander Abeler’s tasks so rewarding isn’t just overcoming the technical challenges. It’s the intercultural cooperation with international customers: “Negotiations or decision-making processes in an international setting never evolve along uniform lines. Understanding these differences and taking them into account while processing a project is what makes my job so exciting.” Some customers are simply interested in the most expedient path to an optimum solution, while others want to be able to choose from several proposed concepts.

One of the biggest challenges in the project for Norway and Sweden was preparing the ILS package. Standing for Integrated Logistic Support, the ILS is an operator and maintenance manual that delves into the smallest details of each vehicle type. “Ordinarily, the final ILS package is prepared once the vehicle has been finalized, thus enabling inclusion of possible changes following trials with the pre-series vehicle or during production”, explains Abeler. In this order, the final operator and maintenance manual had to be supplied ahead of the vehicle, meaning that “the ILS documentation had to be amended whenever the vehicle was modified – and that cost time”. In many cases, the delivery of finished vehicles was delayed because the final ILS package was still in preparation.

This meant that RMMV officials from Project Management, Engineering, Production, Purchasing and Quality Management were often all in action at the same time – practically with a dedicated hotline to Scandinavia. Integration of customer equipment took place in Norway and Sweden at facilities specially qualified by RMMV.

Compared with these requirements, the transport logistics were a snap: the trucks were driven to Scandinavia straight from the RMMV plant in Vienna. This not only saved costs, but also doubled as a practical road test. To date, 323 vehicles have been delivered to Sweden and 109 to Norway. Call-offs for an additional 220 trucks have already come in (95 for Norway, 125 for Sweden) and will be delivered in the next few months. Prior to expiration of the framework agreement in 2025, RMMV expects to see additional vehicle call-offs in the high three-figure range.

Other Group companies are also benefitting from this welcome order inflow. Rheinmetall Waffe Munition is supplying the protected vehicle cabs, fabricated at a plant in Unterlüss in Lower Saxony jointly operated with Rheinmetall Landsysteme. Elsewhere in Germany, Rheinmetall Technical Publications is preparing the ILS documentation, while Rheinmetall Norway is developing and supplying parts of the cab equipment (C4I).

All good things…

The first TG trucks reached Sweden at the end of 2017, the first HX trucks in autumn 2020. Norway took delivery of its first vehicles in August 2022. Michael Wittlinger, chairman of the board of management of RMMV, personally transferred the HX and TGS-mil trucks to the Norwegian Army at an official handover ceremony. In a speech marking the occasion, he described the programme as “the most demanding project ever undertaken by Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles”.

“All good things take time” – this German proverb has proven equally true for Norway, Sweden and Rheinmetall. The results of the “Scandinavian Challenge” are first-rate – and for this reason alone well worth the wait. Everyone involved in the project knew that they were heading into uncharted territory. The challenges were great: cooperation built on mutual trust and true teamwork ultimately triumphed.

ABOUT RMMV: Founded in 2010, Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles GmbH, or RMMV for short, is a joint venture company in which Rheinmetall AG holds a 51% stake and MAN Truck and Bus SE 49%. The company is headquartered in Munich and manufacturers its vehicles at its site in Vienna.