Page 35 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2019

According to MAJGEN Bottrell, the IOC milestone for the 3B team will be a marker of continuing momentum as they prepare to roll out a further 1,200 vehicles, 2,600 modules and 1,000 trailers. Phase 4, however, is a bit more complex.
“We’re working through some reli- ability issues,” MAJGEN Bottrell said. “The focus is working closely with Thales to get the reliability of the vehi- cle where we need to before we enter the production reliability acceptance test. That test will ensure that the baseline of the vehicle is right before we enter full rate production.
“We’re behind where we’d planned to beonthat,andwearelookingatadelayin IOC. The focus of that team is getting reli- ability up to speed and up to full rate pro- duction at some point in 2020.”
Reliability and supply
The complexity of the reliability issues poses a particular challenge to Army and Thales engineers as the Hawkei, a developmental platform building on Thales Bushmaster pedigree, enters later stages of development. MAJGEN Bottrell, however, is confident the platform will start hitting key perfor- mance milestones in the coming weeks.
“The reliability issues don’t follow a dis- crete pattern and aren’t in discrete areas,” MAJGEN Bottrell said. “It would almost be too difficult to run through how they’ve manifested themselves.
“Following three reliability growth trials, we brought the Thales and Land (Army) engineers together to work through the details and get the objective quality evidence behind the engineering changes to a level of confidence, and then
applying regression testing and getting the hours up on the vehicles.
“Because it’s developmental, we always knew we were going to experience issues, but I have to say the two teams have really worked hard to get the project to where we are. I’m confident that in the coming weeks we’ll be at a point where we can commence [the] production acceptance reliability test.”
Meanwhile, the business failure of engine supplier Steyr Motors has seen some IOC vehicles delayed, although the situation has since been largely addressed by action from Thales and a visit by Army senior leader- ship to the Bendigo production facility in March.Armyhasprocuredenginesforthe vehicles scheduled under low rate initial production and has an order for the subse- quent 1,000 engines.
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