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the fact that we’re working with an already mature design,” Millard added.
The first batch of vehicles (two AS9s and one K10) will be manufactured by Hanwha Defense Corporation in Ko- rea, while the remainder will come from HDA’s H-ACE (Hanwha Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence) facility at Avalon. HDA’s Director of Business Development and Strategy Tim Pickford said that building the first three ve- hicles in Korea will ensure the technology transfer process occurs and some Australian workers will gain initial expe- rience with the parent company.
LEFT: Hanwha Defense Australia and Army’s Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation Coordination Office (RICO) are working with ECLIPS to develop an autonomous resupply system for the AS10 AARV
“Building a small batch of vehicles overseas at the Origi- nal Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is standard practice,” Pickford explained. “A part of that process will be skilling the Australian workforce participating in that intellectual property transfer, basically skilling Australian industry to get them ready to produce the majority of the vehicles here at Avalon. It’s an approach that’s been undertaken under previous phases of Land 400 and will more than likely be the model going forward for other major programs like this.”
One of the elements being worked on at the moment is the development of a mobility test rig, which will allow Hanwha to test the impact of the additional armour on the vehicles, which will de-risk a major portion of the valida- tion and verification activities and avoid the need for a low- rate initial production model.
“We’re seeing some very positive results and while they’re very early they are indicative. We have set requirements that take into account the additional weight, but it’s always going to be a constant trade-off of meeting the require-
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