Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS LAND FORCES 2022
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
CAN YOU INDICATE WHEN INDUSTRY CAN EXPECT
A DECISION ON LAND 400 PHASE 3?
MAJGEN KING: No, I can’t. Head Armoured Vehicle Division spoke with Hanwha and Rheinmetall [recently]. It’s a matter of record in the press in relation to the statements around what the previous government indicated. We’ve given them an indication that it would not occur in quarter three. We’re now in quarter four, and we’re working with government. It’s a live tender so I can’t say more than that.
CAN YOU COMMENT ON WHETHER THE SCOPE OF LAND 400 PHASE 3 HAS BEEN RING-FENCED FROM THE DSR? MAJGEN KING: No, I can’t. We understand that the DSR is very much being rightly driven by the two independent leads. It would be wrong for us to second guess or presuppose those outcomes – that would be a failure on our part to let the process take its course. We’ve given briefings on the role of land power to the leads, part of which highlights the need of a modernised combined arms fighting system, but we’ve been given no indication as to where Phase 3 sits within the DSR’s thinking, nor are we making any assumptions. We’ll wait until we’re given the advice as part of the final DSR submission.
SIMCENTRIC COLLABORATES WITH
LOCKHEED MARTIN FOR LIVE FIRE TRAINING Realistic military training is dangerous and Defence’s challenge is to make live fire training as safe as possible, without excessively diminishing the training benefit.
One solution now being rolled out in Australia and overseas uses technology developed by Australian company SimCentric. SimCentric pitched the product, called SAF-FORESIGHT, at Army Innovation Day 2017 and it’s now being rolled out
across Defence.
SimCentric is collaborating with Lockheed Martin
to integrate SAF-FORESIGHT with Lockheed’s target management system VisualShot.
SAF-FORESIGHT is a sophisticated computer tool for three-dimensional range safety, planning, visualisation, briefing, risk assessment, analysis and safety intervention to support live fire collective military training.
“First, we make sure we comply with the doctrine. We fully digitise all the range safety doctrine the ADF has endorsed. That defines arcs, angles, ricochet danger areas for different ammunition types, templates, all of that,” said Gareth Collier SimCentric’s Vice-President for Strategy.
“Instead of holding that to the planning stage only, we carry it through to rehearsal, execution and review phases.” That means full virtual exercise rehearsals can be conducted through a simulation engine using vehicles, aircraft, UAS. That can identify if the exercise is suitable
and where risk lies.
“I then carry through the execution phase, tracking
people in real time. At that point I can alert if something has changed, if someone has gone early or late. Instead of something happening and asking why did it happen, it’s stopping it from happening in the first place,” Collier said.
Rather than building all required infrastructure, the system will work with whatever geolocation technology is already in place.
POLARIS ATVS IN USE WITH ADF
When it comes to small rugged all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), the ADF has picked Polaris, the US company which started out making snowmobiles for winter hunters.
Nick Francis, Vice-President of Polaris Government and Defence Division, said the Australian military users included special forces and RAAF airfield defence units.
The ADF has acquired Polaris Sportsman, which is modified to meet defence requirements, and the MV850 military-off-the-shelf four-wheel drive vehicle.
“We bring world class offroad vehicle engineering and technology and apply it to what the military needs
ADM ROYA GHODSI