The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration has delivered the first of 14 units of the Archer artillery system to the United Kingdom. FMV signed a contract for the sale of 14 units to the United Kingdom in March. After final work and test firing, the first unit has now been delivered to the United Kingdom, the agency states in a press release.

– We are pleased to welcome another user country to the Archer family. This is also important as it enables continued support from Sweden and the United Kingdom with artillery systems to Ukraine, says Jonas Lotsne, Head of the Army Division at FMV in the press release.

The work leading up to the delivery of the first unit was carried out with a tight schedule of six months. The sale of Archer to the United Kingdom is part of a strategic cooperation agreement between Sweden and the United Kingdom, focusing on continued support to Ukraine and long-term cooperation regarding the Archer system, the agency writes.

– It has gone smoothly, despite the relatively short time frame. One might think we just took units from storage and dusted them off, but that's not the case. The delivery was preceded by a lot of work, says Patrik Almqvist, Project Manager of the Army Division at FMV in the press release.

On September 4, Defense Minister Pål Jonson met with the UK's Minister of Defense Procurement, James Cartlidge, in a bilateral meeting. During the meeting, strategic material collaborations in the defense sector, the security situation, and defense policy in general were discussed, according to a post from the Ministry of Defense on X (formerly Twitter).

The delivery marks the second major Archer news in as many days. Yesterday, FMV announced that they are procuring 48 Archer 8x8 units, where the firing system is integrated on an HX2 8x8 truck from German Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles, RMMV. In a comment to Försvarssektorn Nyheter, Henrik Hedberg, Communications Director at BAE Bofors, comments on the news:

“It has been a good week for Archer with no less than two important milestones. Firstly, we have FMV's order of 48 new Archers for the Swedish Army and, in addition, the delivery of the first unit to the British Army. We at BAE Systems Bofors are very proud to have developed a world-class artillery system.”

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