Australia's generational military land equipment investment prioritises national sovereign industrial capabilities, regional defence cooperation, supply chain resilience and dual use opportunities.
Australia’s A$1 billion contract to purchase defence equipment from South Korea’s Hanwha Defense Australia is reportedly the country's largest-ever military deal with an Asian nation and designed to build strategic relations in the Asia-Pacific region through defence industry cooperation and to contribute to Australia’s sovereign industrial capabilities through local production and supply.
The Land 8116 Phase 1 project deal for 30 K9 Huntsman howitzers and 15 K10 ammunition resupply vehicles includes Hanwha establishing an Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence in the Geelong region in Victoria. Follow-on contracts could reportedly bring the total value of the deal to A$2.6 billion but that’s not all. Victorian state government support is bolstering Hanwha’s bid for Australia’s $30 billion Land 400 Phase 3 contract to build new Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) for the Australian Army.
Hanwha, with Victoria, is offering its Redback IVF, to be manufactured in Geelong, against the Lynx KF41 IVF from German company Rheinmetall Defence Australia which has established its Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence with the Queensland government in Redbank where the company’s BOXER Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles have been manufactured under Land 400 Phase 2 as well as trucks under earlier programs.
Civilian vehicles
Rheinmetall’s MILVEHCOE precinct’s “design, development, manufacture and sustainment of a world class military vehicles” also includes a focus on “research and development of vehicle technologies including autonomous systems and new civilian vehicle capabilities” and recently the company announced it is proposing autonomous vehicles that can fight bushfires in extreme environments.
"The Advanced Firefighting Concept is based on the Bundeswehr's Marder platform and aims to reduce the risk to frontline firefighters. It was developed in the wake of the 2019/20 bushfires," said Gary Stewart, Managing Director, RDA.
Rheinmetall received an Australian Government 5G Innovation Initiative grant to test and develop 5G use with the AFC and Mr Stewart said that with the support of Telstra, Rheinmetall will use an un-crewed aerial vehicle to create a communications relay device to establish a 5G network to the remote firefighting vehicle.
Photo: Top: RDA's Advanced Firefighting Concept based on the Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicle in service with the German Army; Below Left: RDA's Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle; Below Right: HDA's Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicle