LONDON — Norway has ordered HMT Extenda vehicles from British maker Supacat under a deal valued at £23 million (US $34.8 million), including support, to bolster the mobility of its land forces.

In its announcement Wednesday, the company did not say how many vehicles were involved, but added it had an option to double the order.

Deliveries will begin next year and be completed in 2019.

The rolling chassis for the vehicles will be built at Supacat's Devon-based facility in southwest England and shipped to Norway for final fit and integration.

Supacat Managing Director Nick Ames said the Norwegian order "reinforces our world lead in this niche corner of the defense industry and underlines HMT Extenda's position as the vehicle of choice for the modern fighting forces."

The vehicles, similar to machines used extensively by British forces in Afghanistan, can be converted to a 4x4 or 6x6 configuration by installing or removing a self-contained third axle allowing the Extenda to meet changing operational requirements.

Used by special operations forces, the Extenda order for Norway comes just over eight months after Australia signed up a AUS $105 million (US $82.8 million) deal with Supacat for delivery of 89 of the high-mobility machines.

The Australian vehicles (pictured above) are for use in the special operations role and add to an earlier order for Supacat HMT series machines.

Norway joins Denmark as the second Nordic country to operate the HMT family of vehicles.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

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