(Alliance News) - Babcock International Group PLC on Tuesday said it won a new contract to provide technical training to the British Army's armoured vehicle arm.

The London-based defence company said the seven-year contract is worth around GBP75 million and is expected to start in 2024, delivering and supporting "close combat training on tracked and wheeled armoured fighting vehicles to a broad variety of field army and defence users, to include driving and maintenance, gunnery and communications and information systems training."

Babcock said it will deliver and support training at Bovington and Lulworth camps at the Bovington garrison in Dorset, England on behalf of the Armour Centre, supporting its role as the Centre of Excellence for the delivery of armoured fighting vehicles-trained personnel to the British Army.

In addition to supporting the design and delivery of training, Babcock said it would "provide technical and general equipment management, maintenance, and management of the Armour Centre armoured fighting vehicles fleet and motor transport pool, and garrison support services, which includes physical training instruction."

Jo Rayson, managing director of Babcock's training business, commented: "It is vital that soldiers are operationally ready for the field both in the UK and Europe. We have a long-standing role in supporting the British Army, managing all aspects of the army training cycle, designing and delivering over 758,000 individual training days annually. We are delighted to have secured this contract to continue this essential work providing training to the mounted close combat community."

Bovington Garrison Commander & Combat Manoeuvre Centre Deputy Commander John Godfrey commented: "This critical new contract award occurs at an exciting moment in the development of the British Army's armoured fighting vehicle training. Babcock will continue to deliver training on our legacy vehicle fleet, seeking continuous improvement in delivery throughout this contract and our future Ajax, Boxer and Challenger 3 crews will benefit from the developments made."

Shares in Babcock were up 0.3% to 463.20 pence each in London midday Tuesday.

By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News senior reporter

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