EXCLUSIVE. Ireland is expected to soon purchase hundreds of armored vehicles from KNDS France
https://www.latribune.fr/article/la-tribune-dimanche/dimanche-eco/13084630277779/exclusif-l-irlande-devrait-prochainement-acheter-des-centaines-de-blindes-a-knds-france
Posted by SraminiElMejorBeaver
24 Comments
>A small customer of French arms for many years, Ireland is expected to renew its aging armed fleet soon and purchase armored vehicles from KNDS France for a colossal sum.
>This is a major surprise. Ireland has not been among the major clients of the French arms industry until now: in ten years (2015-2024), the country has ordered only €53.1 million worth of French-made weapons systems. That’s very little. But in this rapidly changing world, anything can happen.
>According to multiple sources, Dublin is expected to very soon place an order with [KNDS France](https://knds.com/fr/filiales/knds-france) for several hundred armored vehicles in order to renew, before 2030, a fleet that is costly and increasingly difficult to maintain, composed of vehicles from the 1990s and 2000s (Piranha III from the American company General Dynamics and RG-32M from the South African company Denel).
>Ireland is primarily interested in Jaguar (reconnaissance and combat armored vehicles) and Serval (light multi-role armored vehicles), but also in some Griffon (multi-role troop carriers) and Caesar artillery systems. This represents an order divided into several tranches and valued at over €1 billion in total.
>These vehicles are already in service with the army, all from the famous French Scorpion program, launched in the 2010s to transform land forces into a digitized, interconnected force capable of collaborative combat.
>**Intergovernmental agreement**
>The contract could be formalized during a visit to Dublin, currently being planned, by [the Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin](https://www.latribune.fr/article/defense-aerospatiale/defense/2078983588194114/avec-merz-le-programme-scaf-a-t-il-pris-sa-derniere-baffe) . A window of opportunity is emerging in late March or early April, according to several sources. Dublin wishes to sign this contract within the framework of a G2G (government-to-government) agreement, drawing inspiration from the CaMo contracting model implemented between France and Belgium (same vehicles, same operational doctrine, same unit organization, same digital architecture).
Good Ireland should be putting more money into defence spending.
I want Ireland to put billions into the Irish military.
Russia is a threat to Ireland and all of Western Europe who support Ukraine!
HUNDREDS? What are the lovely Irish going to do with those? Accidentally have them shipped to Poland, where they somehow mysteriously get lost near the ukrainian border?
The possibility to buy those vehicles were mentionned few times, now things are looking clearer about what would be included.
And it also help to eventually push the Rafale as this plane was mentionned as being considered by Ireland at one point.
Good. It’s about time Ireland put some effort into defence. They sit hiding behind the UK (a country they never cease to moan about) and have done little for EU or Ukrainian defence.
Had a Irish guy try and tell me that because of their historical hardships they shouldn’t have to… Wonder what Poland and Ukraine would think of that attitude.
Russia Ukraine war shows that armored vehicules arent the hottest commodity to have nowadays as an army…
It’s good that we are finally taking defence more seriously, but shouldn’t we be focusing on building our Navy and Air Service?
Bit of a wasted purchase Ireland has no business sending soldiers abroad.
These vehicles are completely useless for use in any region but the Sahel and certain Middle Eastern countries. It is a public secret that if shit hits the fan again in the Sahel and a rapid resurgence of terror groups aiming to harm Europe occurs over there, it will be France and Belgium intervening essentially as one force while the rest of Europe focuses on the Eastern European border. So does that mean that…Ireland of all countries is now joining that unspoken coalition? Or is Ireland preparing for something else? Just doing Macron a favour? It is very surprising. I can’t imagine the Irish being happy to see them join Sahel missions with France & Belgium or am I seeing this wrong?
Ha! Ireland should look at Belgium´s CaMo project. We´re buying exactly those vehicles. There were some agreements the French tried to ´forget´ like some advanced electronics and communications equipment and industrial compensation (manufacturing in Belgium).
Besides France, Belgium is quite happy with those, and the CaMo program is very successful integrating Belgium and French units and digitising everything.
“Hundreds”! Not just hundreds but **several** hundred. That will be interesting. They currently only really have enough armoured vehicles for a couple of battalions at best…I suppose this implies a goal of armouring their two brigades more widely. Jaguar, Griffon and Caesar particularly could start to make (probably just one of) those brigades look a bit more like an actual combat brigade…though it does beg the question _why_ to an extent. What kind of operation do they want to be capable of carrying out in the future that they couldn’t do with their current force?
Wasting money on land forces without navy nor air force while being an island seems crazy to me.
I love it, Ireland is looking to buy French vehicles, and 90% of the comments are just fearmongering, double-guessing, wildly speculating and trying to tell Ireland what they need for the mission they believe Ireland should conduct.
If it appeared they were about to purchase Bradleys, Patrias, Boxer, Pumas, … the amount of skepticism and criticism would be much less methinks.
And no, a country of 7 million is not going to build a high-sea navy, unless they dedicate everything to it. Singapore does it with mandatory 2 year conscription and over 3% of GDP spent towards the defense sector, which is 10x what Ireland spends.
If Ireland decides to build a Navy, it will be a diminutive one with no power projection capabilities and will be done at the expense of everything else. And for what? So they can defend against an invasion from the UK? the US? In both cases they’d be swatted in days.
Ireland developing their expeditionary capabilities and strengthening their long tradition of operating light mechanized brigades that they can deploy in support of their allies or as part of the UN commitments is by far the most sensible and useful thing they could do.
I haven’t seen any mention of this on the mainstream news channels here(Ireland), so thats very interesting.
Sounds like the French are back to their old tricks.
Watch it UK.
Great move from Ireland to fill the capacity gaps.
Aye they getting tanks and guns as well
Jesus you can’t keep people in Europe happy.
Ye piss and moan about our lack of defence investment, then when there’s news of defence investment the response is ‘sure what do they need that for??’.
You’re almost there lads.
Ireland distrusts the UK that much? They seem to be willing to buy a lot of stuff from France lately.
They look more like vehicles for controlling their civilian unrest.
Did Ireland figure out that there is no neutrality? If you stay out of conflicts like Ukraine you help the aggressor.
ok but whos going to operate them do they have enough with such a small army
We’ll have the scrotes on the run mwahaha, or…….they’ll have us on the run if they commander one of these things