The production line was established to support the Netherlands-funded delivery of more than 100 THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine. Deliveries are being coordinated through Milrem Robotics’ Dutch subsidiary in cooperation with VDL Defentec.
The final assembly line at the Born facility has been designed for flexibility. Milrem Robotics said this will allow production capacity to be scaled quickly and deliveries to be accelerated when required.
The new manufacturing capability will also support long-term cooperation between Milrem Robotics and VDL Defentec. The companies said it will help strengthen Europe’s defence industrial capacity.
“The opening of this production line and the handover of the first THeMIS vehicles manufactured in the Netherlands mark an important milestone in our cooperation with the Dutch government and VDL Defentec. It demonstrates that Europe’s defence industry is capable of rapidly increasing production capacity and delivering meaningful capabilities to Ukraine. Therefore, this cooperation with VDL is a great fit because of their solid industrial scaling capabilities to serve the European market with Milrem products,” said Kuldar Väärsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics.
“The handover of the first THeMIS vehicles produced at our Born facility demonstrates that European companies can jointly establish new manufacturing capabilities at speed and support international security efforts. We are proud of our cooperation with Milrem Robotics, and the delivery of the first THeMIS vehicles manufactured in the Netherlands is an important achievement for this partnership,” said Willem van der Leegte, CEO of VDL Groep.
The new vehicles will join THeMIS platforms already operating in Ukraine since 2022. Milrem Robotics said those systems have repeatedly proven their reliability and effectiveness in combat conditions.
THeMIS is a versatile unmanned ground vehicle designed to support infantry units. Its roles include logistics, reconnaissance, combat support and other battlefield tasks.
The platform is currently in use or part of robotics programmes in 20 countries. Milrem Robotics said this makes it the world’s most widely used unmanned ground vehicle in its class.
Milrem Robotics develops robotics and autonomous systems and has offices in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Alongside THeMIS, the company is developing the HAVOC robotic combat vehicle, the VECTOR unmanned ground vehicle and autonomous capabilities including the ARCOS command-and-control system.
The company also led the European defence development programme iMUGS under the EDIDP framework. Milrem Robotics said the follow-on project, iMUGS2, is currently in preparation.
