Arquus, Daimler Truck team up to pitch military trucks to France

THE HAGUE, Netherlands ​​— French military-vehicle maker Arquus and Germany’s Daimler Truck have announced a new strategic partnership aimed at providing the French military with new military trucks.

The collaboration, unveiled on Thursday, will see both companies pool their expertise in joint vehicle development, production, sales, and after-sales services, with a particular focus on modernizing the French Army’s fleet of logistics trucks, according to a joint statement.

The partnership comes amid a significant defense spending uptick across Europe and growing concerns over military technology sovereignty and reliance on the U.S. In their press release, the companies emphasize their domestic nature, with Arqus producing exclusively in France and Daimler running a plant near the French border in Germany.

Arquus, which makes 90% of the French Army’s wheeled vehicles and is now part of the John Cockerill group, brings decades of experience in protected mobility and systems integration. Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, adds significant scale and industrial capacity, with production facilities in both France and Germany.

Executives from both companies touted the compatibility of their products and corporate cultures amid a fractured European military vehicle market. “We want to make a decisive contribution to the defence readiness of our two countries,” said Daniel Zittel, head of defense sales at Daimler Truck.

Production for the joint projects will be split between Arquus’s sites in Garchizy and Limoges, and Daimler Truck’s facilities in Wörth am Rhein and Molsheim, the latter being just across the border in Alsace. Both firms stress that the partnership will strengthen their respective national industrial bases and safeguard jobs, a key political consideration.

Europe’s rearmament has breathed new life into otherwise struggling automotive plants, a key economic sector in Germany.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

荷兰海牙——法国军用车辆制造商 Arquus 和德国戴姆勒卡车公司宣布建立新的战略合作伙伴关系，旨在为法国军方提供新的军用卡车。

根据一份联合声明，双方于周四宣布的合作将汇集两家公司在联合车辆开发、生产、销售和售后服务方面的专业知识，尤其侧重于法国陆军后勤卡车车队的现代化。

此次合作正值欧洲国防开支大幅增长，以及人们对军事技术主权和对美国的依赖日益担忧之际。两家公司在新闻稿中强调了其本土性质，Arqus 完全在法国生产，而戴姆勒在德国靠近法国边境的地方经营着一家工厂。

为法国陆军生产90%轮式车辆的Arquus公司，现已成为John Cockerill集团的一部分，在防护机动性和系统集成方面拥有数十年的经验。戴姆勒卡车是全球最大的商用车制造商之一，其在法国和德国均设有生产基地，为该项目带来了显著的规模和工业产能。

在欧洲军用车辆市场格局分散的情况下，两家公司的管理人员都强调了各自产品和企业文化的兼容性。“我们希望为两国国防战备做出决定性贡献，”戴姆勒卡车公司国防销售主管丹尼尔·齐特尔表示。

合资项目的生产将分别在Arquus位于加尔希济和利摩日的工厂，以及戴姆勒卡车位于莱茵河畔沃尔特和莫尔塞姆的工厂进行，其中莫尔塞姆工厂位于阿尔萨斯地区，与德国仅一河之隔。两家公司都强调，此次合作将增强各自国家的工业基础，并保障就业，而就业是一个重要的政治考量。

欧洲的重新武装为原本举步维艰的汽车工厂注入了新的活力，而汽车工厂是德国的关键经济部门。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。