MAN Truck & Bus delivers British Army's final SX45

MAN Truck & Bus UK LTD has transported its final delivery of five SX45 (L) Variant vehicles to the British Army. This concludes the contract agreement from July 2017.

In 2012 MAN supplied the British Army with five of these vehicles.

This was in order to support the British Military’s Land Environment Air Picture Provision System (LEAPP) Programme.

The fleet has been used as a mobile platform for the deployment of specialised radar equipment.

Thomas Hemmerich, managing director of MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, said: “The project is a further example of the close partnership MAN and RMMV has maintained with the UK MoD since the British Army procured more than 7,500 HX logistics vehicles from MAN between 2005 and 2013.

“It also highlights the prolonged supportability of the HX / SX family of vehicles, which sets the global standard for robustness, mobility, performance, flexibility and modularity.” 

This delivery was concluded via a partnered team solution.

MAN took on project management responsivity, the vehicles were manufactured in Vienna by Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles Austria.

The subcontract was worth €2.6 million, with vehicles being shipped to the UK from December 2018 to April 2019.

After inspections, all five vehicles were accepted by the Army in 2019.

The project caused all involved some problems.

The vehicles needed to be ordered, manufactured and delivered within a certain timeframe, and before the vehicle came out of production in the latter stages of 2017.

There was also a five-year gap from the 2012 production to the 2017 production, which caused some notable supersession and parts obsolescence issues.

These five vehicles are the last SX45 (L) vehicles that will ever be produced.

Last year the British Army confirmed a five-year agreement with National Windscreens. Its fleet contract leads them as the sole supplier for windscreen repair and replacement.