Belgium starts building a giant repair center for its army vehicles

Belgium has started building a new maintenance center for its army’s armored vehicles in Rocourt, near Liège, where a joint venture of FN Herstal, John Cockerill Defense and Thales Belgium will repair and service the Belgian Land Component’s vehicles and their weapons under a 20-year deal.

Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken laid the foundation stone on Oct. 27 at the site of the army’s Rolling Stock and Armament Competence Centre, FN Herstal said on social media. The joint venture, called LS², short for Land Systems Logistic Support, will maintain the land forces’ vehicles throughout their service lives, along with the weapons, information and communication systems fitted to them.

The new building will cover about 30,000 m² (323,000 square feet), making it the largest private maintenance center for military vehicles in the country, and LS² expects to hire around 200 people for it, mostly mechanics, technicians and other skilled workers, Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported. Some 400 people already work at the Rocourt site, and construction is due to finish around July 2028, L’Avenir reported.

The three partners split the work by specialty. John Cockerill Defense handles the vehicles and their turrets, FN Herstal covers the weapons, from machine guns such as the recently modernized FN MAG to remote weapon stations, and Thales Belgium supports radios, sensors and onboard computer systems.

Belgium’s Ministry of Defence confirmed the partnership on Jan. 30, 2026, and appointed Thibault Lambrecht, previously a sales executive at John Cockerill Defense, as chief executive. The Belgian business daily L’Echo put the contract’s value at about €700 million (about $779 million), La DH reported at the time.

LS² began work well before the new building. Within weeks of its launch, its staff started taking over maintenance of most army vehicles at the bases in Marche-en-Famenne and Leopoldsburg, home to Belgium’s 7th and 1st brigades, Forces Operations Blog reported in March, and the joint venture also carries out maintenance at other land force bases across Belgium.

The partnership arrives as the Belgian army takes delivery of hundreds of new French-designed armored vehicles under the CaMo program, run jointly with France. Belgium has ordered close to 500 Griffon 6×6 armored personnel carriers and 60 Jaguar reconnaissance vehicles, which are replacing older Piranha IIIC and Dingo 2 vehicles, and it has also ordered French artillery systems under the same program, including CAESAR NG self-propelled howitzers and 24 Griffon MEPAC 120 mm mortar carriers. The new vehicles remain under manufacturer warranty for their first years in service, and LS² will take over their maintenance once those warranties expire and the Rocourt center is fully running. The Belgian Griffons carry remote weapon stations from FN Herstal, which builds its FN DEFENDER stations at its plant in Herstal, a few miles from Rocourt.