Page 59 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS VIEW FROM CANBERRA 59
As your correspondent noted previously, one of the amusements of reviewing the cabinet documents released at the end of each year is to look at past defence deci- sions, assessing (with 100 per cent hind- sight) where money was well spent and pro- duced a lasting benefit and where it wasn’t.
The most recent release covered 1998 and 1999, the second two years of the Howard government, which featured a couple of de- cisions which fell within the category – they sure wouldn’t have spent that sort of money if they knew then what we know now.
One was the decision to spend $85 mil- lion on additional Penguin missiles to arm the Navy’s new Seasprite helicopter. We know how that ended.
“EVEN THOROUGHLY MODERNISED, THE M113S, DESIGNATED M113AS4, STILL FEATURE THE ORIGINAL FLAT- BOTTOMED ALUMINIUM HULL AND SLAB SIDES WITH ALL THEIR VULNERABILITIES TO IEDS, RPGS. ”
extensively engaged in Vietnam. In 1980, the Army launched Project Waler to find a replace- ment. However the then Labor government cancelled Waler in 1985 on grounds that up- grading existing vehicles was better value.
Eventually a total of 431 vehicles were upgraded at a cost of about $1 billion in a protracted and problematic project which did deliver what are probably the best M-113s on the planet.
But even thoroughly modernised, the M- 113s, designated M113AS4, still feature the original flat-bottomed aluminium hull and slab sides with all their vulnerabilities to IEDs, RPGs and much else on the modern battlefield.
The other was to continue the program of upgrading the M113s, spending $230 million to replace engine, transmis- sion and tracks plus some additional measures to protect against modern small arms bullets.
Initial procurement of M113s was launched in 1958, with the first two delivered in 1962 for trials and another 508 be- tween 1965 and 1978. In all, the Army acquired 817 vehicles.
This was the right vehicle at the right time for an Army
Vast numbers of M113 vehicles remain in service around the world in a variety of roles and their vulnerability to modern weapons has been repeat- edly demonstrated. In 2014, a Hamas RPG-29 struck an
Israeli M113, killing seven Israeli soldiers.
The Australian Army’s M113s continue to be used for
training (plus a very intriguing unmanned trial with BAE Systems in the last 12 months) and will be for some time but they won’t be deployed anywhere other than the most benign of peacekeeping missions. ■
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