Patria opens an armored vehicle production facility in Latvia

The Finnish defense concern Patria has opened a new armored vehicle production facility in Latvia.

Defence Partnership Latvia, a Patria majority-owned joint venture with a local Latvian partner Unitruck, will produce its new armored personnel carriers at the Valmiera industrial site.

The new production facility is primarily focused on the supply of armored personnel carriers ordered by the Latvian National Armed Forces.

The Latvian plant plans to produce about 30 armored vehicles a year.

The full production cycle will begin in May, and the first vehicle will be ready for testing no earlier than July.

The plant in Valmiera was opened by Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa and her Finnish counterpart Petteri Orpo.

Defence Partnership Latvia was founded in 2020. It is a joint venture between Patria and the Latvian company Unitruck, in which Patria holds a controlling stake.

Patria’s Valmiera office is almost a copy of one of the company’s plants in Finland and occupies a large area south of the center of Valmiera, which has been set aside for future development.

“The local Patria 6×6 project creates the conditions for a development breakthrough in the Latvian defense industry,” says Uģis Romanovs, Chairman of the Board of Defence Partnership Latvia, and Patria Latvia.

Although the APC by Patria was developed many years ago, Patria has continued to develop its armored personnel carrier program.

In early 2020, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia agreed on a joint program to develop Common Armored Vehicle Systems (CAVS) based on the Patriа 6×6 armored personnel carrier.

The new Patria APC was named the XA-300 model, which was a development of the XA-200, which in turn was a development of the KH-180, which is also in service with the Ukrainian army.