Daresbury, 9 Sep, 2025 – Olsen Actuators and Drives have successfully delivered a series of development Commanders Armoured Sight Hood actuators to Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) a leading defence engineering company specialising in the design, manufacture and support of military vehicles used by the British Army.

RBSL has a proud heritage, having designed and delivered many of the British Army’s armoured vehicle fleets. RBSL provides in-service support for these vehicles, including one of the UK’s latest vehicle programmes for the British Army, the Challenger 3. The Challenger 3 is a network-enabled, digital Main Battle Tank with state-of-the-art lethality, upgraded survivability, plus world-class surveillance and target acquisition capabilities.

After working successfully on the Bunker Blast Door project, Olsen and RBSL have collaborated to deliver a mission critical vision system for the commander on the Challenger 3. Over the past 3 years, Olsen has worked closely with RBSL to develop a fully custom solution that meets their specification, fully qualifying the manufactured actuators to specified defence standards.

The custom rotary actuator solution, designed and manufactured in the UK, provides a highly precise, high torque and near zero backlash solution to ensure the safety of the British Army crew in the field. In addition, the longevity and low maintenance of electro-mechanical actuation systems was especially valuable to RBSL, where system failure or downtime can have mission-critical consequences.

Adam Bargh, Technical Director, Olsen Actuators & Drives, added: “It has been a great opportunity to continue our work with RBSL on our second project. We’re proud to deliver lifesaving technology for the British Army on a second project on the Challenger 3.”

Emilie Weaving, Survivability Engineer, RBSL, commented: “Working with Olsen Actuators over the last 3 years has been a very positive experience. We trust their expertise in electro-mechanical actuation systems and look forward to working with them in the future to help protect British forces.”

Following the successful delivery of the development actuators, Olsen is set to manufacture 148 production actuators for the Challenger 3 fleet.