Support for French Army’s 77 Units for 7 Years, 4 Months

Nexter has been notified that its initial seven-year in-service support (ISS) contract to support the French Army’s 77 CAESAR self-propelled artillery systems has been followed by a second contract, with a performance period of seven years and four months, the company announced on 28 September.

The notification was issued by SIMMT, the directorate responsible for maintaining ground equipment in operational condition, following the initial period during which CAESAR saw service in Afghanistan, Sahel, Lebanon and Iraq, with demand on the systems being intense at certain times. The new contract takes these several years of feedback into account, making the maintenance ‘packages’ more flexible and responsive to predicted use in peacetime and when operationally deployed.

Nexter will ensure the ‘maintenance in operational condition’ (MOC) of the CAESAR systems, including management and delivery of spare parts, documentation, technical expertise, technical assistance to regiments, tool maintenance and support for the systems used in the Canjuers and Mourmelon training areas. These operations are conducted in conjunction with the SMITer industrial maintenance teams, which specifically carry out deep vehicle repairs. Technical control, on behalf of the DGA defence procurement agency enables the system to be monitored, technical facts analysed and obsolescence issues dealt with, thus addressing consideration of future improvements to the platform.

Nexter is the prime contractor for CAESAR MOC, and also for the army’s main combat platforms: VBCI, LECLERC and AMX 10 RC. ISS contracts for each of these systems optimise supply chain performance and fleet availability: “[…] renewal of the ISS CAESAR demonstrates the quality of the services offered by Nexter for more than 10 years and the relationship of trust built up with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces,” stated Lilian Braylé, Director Customer Services. This close collaboration is evident, for example, in the remote workshops set up in the training fleets in Provence and Champagne, where Nexter has teams conducting all or part of the maintenance of the vehicles used to train Army units.