LUXEMBOURG – On 17th and 18th May, the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) participated in the 7th annual Future Armoured Vehicles Central and Eastern Europe conference with two keynote speakers. Mr Robert Elvish, NSPA Programme Manager for Air and Land Combat Systems and Mr Marc Nuijten, NSPA System Management Group Leader for BOXER presented relevant briefings on support to Armoured Fighting Vehicles.
On the first day of the conference, Mr Elvish
provided an overview of the Agency highlighting the significant value of
bringing Nations together to work collaboratively on multinational acquisition
and in-service support. "NSPA provides
significant economies of scale and scope, giving Nations greater buying power,
sharing of non-recurring costs and access to highly skilled and capable
engineers, technicians, logisticians and procurement specialists", he assured
to the conference delegates during his briefing.
His presentation focused on capability
development, project requirements and acquisition processes. Special emphasis
was placed on weapons systems of interest to Central and Eastern European
Nations, including PzH2000, Multiple
Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or HIMARS.
Mr Elvish provided a synopsis of the Life-Cycle Support including Supply &
Maintenance, Stock Management and Engineering Services that NSPA offers to the
nations.
To finalise his briefing, Mr Elvish presented NSPA Demilitarization, Dismantling and Disposal (D3) services, highlighting the goal to reduce costs and maximise revenues, in compliance with regulatory frameworks and a commitment to a sustainable environmental approach. The Leopard 1 MBT and M113 APC case studies were discussed. "We disposed of more than 1000 weapons systems and an overall return of more than €6M revenue back to the Nation involved", assured Mr Elvish.
On the second day of the conference, NSPA System Management Group Leader for BOXER, Mr Nuijten, participated in the panel "Developing the Next Generation of Multi Role Armoured Vehicles" together with OCCAR. He focused his briefing on the Life Cycle Management and In-Service Support of the Boxer fleet. " Today,NSPA provides support to four member nations, and more than 600 vehicles. It is expected that in the fullness of time there will be more than 1000 BOXER vehicles in the inventory of these Nations", he assured.