Latvia Takes Delivery of Its First HUNTER IFV: 84-Vehicle Deal Moved From Signature to Steel in 14 Months

Latvia’s National Armed Forces formally received their first HUNTER infantry fighting vehicle on October 7, 2026, in a handover ceremony that closed out just 14 months of design, production and testing work. The vehicle was built by Santa Bárbara Sistemas, the Spanish arm of General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS).

HUNTER is the latest-generation derivative of the ASCOD tracked platform, the same family that equips Austria’s army as the Ulan and Spain’s as the Pizarro. The vehicle meets NATO Level 4 armour protection and carries an automatic cannon, an anti-tank weapon system and a machine gun, with room for six fully equipped infantry in the troop compartment.

The order behind the delivery covers 84 vehicles in total. Latvia signed for an initial batch of 42 in early 2025 and added a second 42-vehicle order mid-year, according to Spanish industry reporting that puts the first tranche at around €387 million. Deliveries of the full fleet are scheduled to run through 2029, equipping two mechanised battalions.

Seventy percent of production runs through GDELS facilities in Trubia, Asturias, and Alcalá de Guadaíra, near Seville. The remaining 30 percent is built in Latvia itself, through Defence Partnership Latvia, a joint venture majority-owned by Finland’s Patria. That arrangement also carries technology transfer, positioning the Latvian partner to handle assembly and sustainment of later batches rather than simply receiving finished hulls.

A separate 13-year support contract, signed in September 2025 and worth roughly €225 million, locks in spare parts, crew training and field maintenance through 2037. Latvian officials have framed the two contracts together as evidence the country is building an industrial relationship with GDELS rather than making a one-off purchase.

“The delivery of infantry fighting vehicles is an important step in strengthening Latvia’s defence capabilities,” Defence Minister Raivis Melnis said at the ceremony, noting the vehicles would sharply improve the mobility, protection and firepower of the country’s mechanised units. GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas CEO Alejandro Page described the handover as the product of “a joint effort,” calling it proof that closer European defence-industrial cooperation can deliver capability faster.

The vehicle’s name carries its own story. Soldiers of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade chose “Hunter,” rendered as “Mednieks” in Latvian, drawing on a figure from Latvian mythology associated with a bond to nature, courage, skill and survival.

Latvia sits on NATO’s eastern flank, bordering both Russia and Belarus, and hosts the alliance’s Canada-led enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup. Engineers are already testing counter-drone systems on HUNTER, a response to the anti-armour drone threat that Russia’s war in Ukraine has made a standard planning assumption for Baltic militaries.

The vehicle program is part of a much larger buildup. Riga’s 2026 defence budget reached €2.16 billion, or 4.91 percent of GDP, the highest share in the country’s history and up from just 2.1 percent five years ago, as the government moves toward a declared target of 5 percent. The HUNTER handover is the first visible hardware result of that spending surge to reach Latvian soldiers.

Sources

• European Security & Defence, “GDELS–Santa Bárbara Sistemas hands over first HUNTER,” October 7, 2026, https://euro-sd.com/2026/10/news/land/54203/gdels-hunter/ — used for delivery details, contract timeline and official statements.
• Defence Blog, “Latvia gets its first HUNTER infantry fighting vehicle,” October 7, 2026, https://defence-blog.com/latvia-gets-its-first-hunter-infantry-fighting-vehicle/ — used for vehicle specifications and contract breakdown.
• Latvian Ministry of Defence, “The first Latvian-adapted ‘Hunter’ infantry fighting vehicle delivered to the National Armed Forces,” October 7, 2026, https://www.mod.gov.lv/en/news/first-latvian-adapted-hunter-infantry-fighting-vehicle-delivered-national-armed-forces — used for official confirmation and the Minister’s statement.
• Public Broadcasting of Latvia (LSM), “Latvia takes steps toward 5% of GDP for defence,” June 25, 2025, https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/defence/25.06.2025-latvia-takes-steps-toward-5-of-gdp-for-defence.a604418/ — used for 2026 defence budget figures.