Page 38 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019

LAND FORCES
LAND 400
“Rheinmetall is moving from
30 per cent AIC with the logistics vehicles to more than 50 per cent with the CRVs.
DEFENCE
As stated by Managing Director Gary Stewart, the one campus will house some of the best technologies from across the parent company’s entire defence business – a true one-stop shop, coupled with an impressive range of development and test facilities.
“And it will be a centre where Defence, industry and academia can come together to test new ideas, confirm capability ben- efits and commercialise new technologies, in Australia,” he declared.
Under Land 121 Phase 3b, RDA in 2020 will complete delivery to the ADF of more than 2,500 heavy and medium high mobil- ity logistics vehicles.
Under Land Phase 3b/5b, the company will then deliver through to 2024 a further 1,044 of the same platforms, also manufac- tured in Europe but incorporating about 35 per cent Australian Industry Content (AIC). The AIC largely comprises mission modules, products and parts whose integration will move around mid-2020 from Penske Com- mercial Vehicles in Brisbane to the first of MILVEHCOE’s three production lines.
Land 400 Phase 3
The second MILVEHCOE line will be dedicated to Boxer production. The third is intended to assemble Rheinmetall’s Lynx KF41 should this be selected under
Project Land 400 Phase 3 to meet Army’s requirement for up to 400 tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) to replace Army’s Vietnam era – albeit upgraded - M113AS4 armoured personnel carriers.
Two of the four confirmed contenders for Land 400 Phase 3 are expected to be shortlisted in the third quarter of this year to undertake extensive risk mitigation ac- tivities, probably lasting about 18 months, culminating in the submission of best and final offers and final evaluation for work es- timated at $15 billion.
Whatever the standalone merits of the Lynx, its proposed production alongside that of Boxer CRVs in what will be the most advanced military vehicle manufacturing
MILVEHCOE
facility of its type in Aus- tralia is unlikely to have harmed its prospects.
MILVEHCOE construction is being over- seen by the Queensland Government and the facility is on track for phased practical com- pletion from early 2020 on an 11.1 hectare precinct adjacent to the Brisbane River and about 30 km southwest of Brisbane.
As pointed out by RDA, the facility’s proximity to Gallipoli Barracks will en- able vehicle operators from 7th Brigade to remain involved in vehicle design, manufac- ture and test activities.
MILVEHCOE’s location also leaves it centrally placed for other Army operational units in Townsville, Darwin and Adelaide while being relatively close to the growth markets of Asia and the Pacific.
The vehicles under the various phases of Land 121 are being rolled out nationally.
The production facility/warehouse build- ing will cover a gross floor area of more than 32,000 square metres. A separate three- storey administration building will include RDA’s Australia-Pacific headquarters, while a separate corporate function centre will act as a multi-purpose venue for corporate pre- sentations, staff briefings and vehicle and equipment displays.
Resources will include ballistic steel welding of vehicle structure, assembly and test of complex electrical and sighting sys- tems, sandblasting and painting, composite armour manufacture, and full vehicle as- sembly and integration.
The precinct will also contain a three-sto- rey electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) chamber designed to test vehicles up to the size of an Abrams M1A1 main battle tank; a mobility test track for post assembly/main- tenance and prototype shakedown testing; a
38 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au