Germany Orders 876 Patria 6x6 CAVS Vehicles With NEMO Mortar and Kongsberg RS4 Remote Weapon Station.

Patria says Germany signed two serial procurement contracts under the CAVS program worth over €2 billion, covering up to 876 Patria 6x6 armored vehicles across four variants, including NEMO 120 mm turreted mortar and Kongsberg PROTECTOR RS4 configurations.

Patria Group announced on 18 December 2025 that Patria and Germany concluded two serial procurement contracts within the Common Armoured Vehicle System programme worth more than 2 billion euros, combining a firm order valued at over 1 billion euros with options. The package covers up to 876 Patria 6x6 armoured vehicles in four variants, including configurations fitted with the Patria NEMO 120 mm turreted mortar and the Kongsberg PROTECTOR RS4 remote weapon station. Deliveries are set to start in 2026, with German industrial partners ramping up local production so that the first fully domestically built vehicles arrive in 2027.
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Germany's Patria 6x6 offers fast, protected mobility with an 8.5-tonne payload, plus variants with remote weapon stations and the NEMO 120 mm turreted mortar for rapid indirect fire, replacing ageing Fuchs vehicles in NATO formations (Picture source: Patria).

At the platform level, the Patria 6x6 is designed as a high-volume protected mobility workhorse. The vehicle’s published baseline figures point to a 7.5 m hull length, 2.9 m width, and 2.5 m height over the hull, with a maximum combat weight of 24,000 kg and a maximum payload of 8,500 kg. Patria quotes a maximum road speed above 100 km/h and an operating distance above 700 km, backed by continuous All Wheel Drive and steering on the first and second axles. Mobility geometry is clearly tuned for European terrain with a 60% climb rating, 30% side slope, 0.6 m vertical obstacle, 1.2 m trench crossing, and 1.5 m fording depth, plus an optional swimming kit rated at 7 km/h for water crossings. Power comes from an in-line five-cylinder diesel rated at 325 kW and 1,910 Nm, paired with an automatic transmission offering 7 forward and 2 reverse gears, while the suspension is fully independent with double wishbones and optional hydropneumatic springs for heavier builds.

The variants Germany is buying matter because they push the fleet beyond simple troop transport into a combined arms enabler for light and medium formations. The NEMO mortar turret, at 1,900 kg, brings 360-degree traverse and an elevation arc from minus 3 degrees to 85 degrees, supporting both indirect fire and direct lay self-defence. Patria states a time to open fire under 25 seconds, a maximum rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute, and a sustained rate of 6 rounds per minute, with the first three rounds delivered in 15 seconds, while ammunition stowage is platform dependent at roughly 50 to 60 rounds. Range is quoted as 10 km plus, depending on ammunition, and the system’s MRSI and MTSI modes allow up to five rounds to arrive together within a stated 1.0 km to 6.5 km envelope, a useful tool for saturation strikes and rapid suppression before counter battery response.

Germany’s timing is not accidental: one day before Patria’s announcement, Berlin’s parliamentary budget committee cleared more than 50 billion euros in defence contracts over the coming years, the largest such package to date, covering everything from soldier equipment to armoured vehicles, drones, and satellites. That political signal pairs with Germany’s wider fiscal push. The 2025 federal budget sets defence spending at roughly 62.4 billion euros, with total military expenditure reaching about 2.4% of GDP once special fund spending is included. In that environment, a serial programme built around an existing platform is attractive because it converts budget authority into fielded mass faster than a clean sheet design.

In Bundeswehr service, the Patria 6x6 family is poised to become the practical successor to the TPz Fuchs in the roles where Germany needs protected mobility in numbers. These include moving infantry, engineers, reconnaissance teams, and command elements with enough protection to survive fragments, mines, and ambush corridors, but without paying the cost and logistical penalty of heavier 8x8 fleets for every task. Patria has positioned the Germanised CAVS vehicle as a replacement candidate for the ageing Fuchs fleet, and the industrial setup with German partners is structured to sustain that transition over decades through domestic production, maintenance, and upgrade capacity.

Against Western competitors, the Patria 6x6 occupies a distinct niche. Compared with heavier 8x8 platforms such as Boxer, Piranha class vehicles, or Stryker, it trades some growth margin and ultimate protection potential for fleet density, simpler training pipelines, and lower life cycle cost, while still retaining the option to mount high-value systems like a turreted 120 mm mortar. Compared with other modern 6x6 programmes such as France’s VBMR Griffon, the Patria approach emphasises multinational interoperability and a built-in indirect fire capability through NEMO rather than relying solely on dismounted mortar units.

NATO uptake reinforces that logic. The CAVS framework already links several allied armies, including Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Norway, and Patria states that the vehicles are operational in Ukraine. Nearly 2,000 vehicles have been ordered across the programme, with more than 250 delivered, and the platform is already fielded in roles ranging from troop transport and command and control to medical evacuation. For Germany, this means adopting a vehicle family that arrives with coalition logistics baked in, enabling shared training, common spares pools, and smoother integration into multinational formations from day one.