Page 12 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

12 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
RHEINMETALL BEGINS LOCAL PRODUCTION OF BOXER CRVS
RHEINMETALL has struck the arc on the first weld of materials for the first Austra- lian Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) entering production at Rheinmetall’s Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MIL- VEHCOE) in Ipswich, Queensland. This ve- hicle will be the first to enter the production line together with initial vehicles from Ger- many currently being assembled at the site.
Rheinmetall says the start of produc- tion realises the company’s goal to support Australia’s Defence Force and its allies with an industrial base in the region.
“This is a very proud day for Queensland’s defence manufacturing capabilities, as our association with Rheinmetall on the $5.2 billion Land 400 Phase 2 project delivers locally built Boxer CRVs,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
“Through the delivery of Land 400 Phase 2 and its other projects, our part- nership has already created 600 jobs at the MILVEHCOE, which will be contributing more than $1 billion to the Queensland’s economy in its first 10 years of operation.
“The facility is now the most advanced military vehicle manufacturing facility in Australia.”
Rheinmetall has commenced produc- tion of the second batch of Boxer CRVs for the Australian Defence Force.
“Rheinmetall has delivered a first batch of 25 Boxer CRVs to Australia,” Nathan Poyner, Managing Director of Rhein- metall Defence Australia commented. “These initial Boxers were built in Germa- ny, and finalised at MILVEHCOE, joining the more than 2900 HX Trucks that were
ABOVE: The ADF’s Boxer CRVs take part in urban warfare training serials in Singapore as part of Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2022
finalised and are today sustained from the facility.
“This striking of the arc event repre- sents the first of 186 Boxer CRVs that will be built at MILVEHCOE, providing jobs, training and new opportunities for Austra- lians working at Rheinmetall and in the more than 200 Australian industry part- ners across the nation.”
DEFENCE CONFIRMS SPECIAL FORCES HELICOPTER CANCELLATION
NIGEL PITTAWAY | AVALON
ON the second day of Avalon 2023, head of Army Aviation Command Major General Stephen Jobson confirmed that Defence’s project to acquire a light helicopter to sup- port Special Forces operations – Land 2097 Phase 4 – has been cancelled by Shane Fairweather, First Assistant Secretary Joint Aviation Systems within CASG.
“The Land 2097 Phase 4 project has been cancelled,” MAJGEN Jobson con- firmed at Avalon on 1 March.
LEFT: A US Army UH-60M Black Hawk at the Avalon Airshow
The program was cancelled by Fairweather because Army’s new overlapping aviation capabilities, represented by the Boeing AH- 64E Apache Guardian, Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk and ex- panded fleet of Boeing CH-47F Chinooks will be able to support the future needs of Army’s spe-
cial operations soldiers.
The Black Hawk will replace Army’s
MRH 90 Taipan under the rapid replace- ment Land 4537 project and the first he- licopters will arrive in the second half of 2023. Army’s Tiger ARH will be replaced by 29 AH-64E Apaches later this decade.
“We’re actually growing the attack heli- copter fleet from 22 Tigers to 29 Apaches, we’re rapidly replacing the MRH 90 with UH-60M, we’re also growing from two batteries of Shadow Tactical Uncrewed Aerial Systems to three batteries of Insitu Integrator, and we have expanded our CH-
47F Chinook fleet from ten to 14 aircraft,” MAJGEN Jobson explained.
“The UH-60M will come into service as an aircraft system that will provide dedicated support to Australia’s Special Forces.”
Sixteen Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) light and rapidly-deployable heli- copters were to be acquired under Land 2097 Phase 4 (Light Special Forces Sup- port Helicopter) to support Special Opera- tions’ Counter-Terrorism (CT) activities.
“The light helicopter will be in the four- tonne class and optimised for insertion and extraction of Special Forces teams within complex terrain, including dense urban environments, complementing the Taipan and enhancing the output of a combined helicopter formation,” a Defence spokes- person explained at the time.
Three bidders responded to the RFT, in- cluding Airbus Group Australia Pacific of- fering the Airbus Helicopters H145M; and Babcock and Jet Aviation each with a solu- tion based on the Bell 429. The H145M was ultimately eliminated but the success- ful bidder was never announced.
NIGEL PITTAWAY
DEFENCE