Page 28 - Australian Defence Magazine March-April 2022

28 DEFENCE BUSINESS NORTHERN DEFENCE
MARCH-APRIL 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LAND POWER BEYOND NORTHERN AUSTRALIA
Early in 2022, Minister for Defence Peter Dutton confirmed a $3.5 billion investment in the Main Battle Tank Upgrade under Land 907 Phase 2 and in
Combat Engineering Vehicles
EWEN LEVICK | MELBOURNE
ACCORDING to Minister Dutton’s press release, Army will receive “up to” 75 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks, 29 M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles, 17 M1074 Joint Assault Bridge Vehicles and an additional six M88A2 Armoured Recov- ery Vehicles.
Interestingly, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr said that no other platform can deliver what a tank can currently deliver – perhaps alluding to the significant public debate (including in ADM) around the utility of Australian tanks, which haven’t been deployed abroad in half a century.
“There are no other current or emerging technologies – or combination of technologies – that can yet deliver the capability currently provided by a main battle tank,” LT- GEN Burr said.
The announcement has nonetheless prompted questions about the rest of the Army’s heavy armour acquisition plan, most obviously the 450 infantry fighting vehicles being ac- quired under Land 400 Phase 3. The risk mitigation activ- ity for that program finished in October 2021 and ADM understands that a decision on the preferred platform (ei- ther Hanwha’s Redback or Rheinmetall’s Lynx) and even
the final number of vehicles is due soon, though doubtless dependent on the forthcoming federal election.
Specifically, the question being asked of Army’s future armour – whether an IFV or a Boxer or a tank – is whether the cost of those programs is worth their deterrent value in the Pacific.
Michael Shoebridge, the director of the Australian Stra- tegic Policy Institute’s Defence, Strategy and National Security program, wrote the following prior to Australia’s decision to spend astronomical sums on nuclear-powered submarines:
“The 450 infantry fighting vehicles look like the ghosts of Christmas past,” Shoebridge wrote in the ASPI Strategist. “They would have been ideal in Afghanistan or Iraq, but it’s hard to see them as a priority for deterring or opposing Chi- nese military power in the Indo-Pacific, unless we’re plan- ning to send the ADF to fight alongside the Indian Armed Forces on the high-altitude India–China border. And I don’t think that’s the plan.
“Cancelling this shortly to be considered $27 billion proj- ect won’t leave our army personnel unprotected in unex- pected stabilisation missions in plac- es like Papua New Guinea, the South
Pacific or elsewhere.
“The army already has the world-
class Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles that saved scores of lives in Afghanistan against lethal IEDs and stacked landmines, and it’s already
ABOVE RIGHT: An Army M1 Abrams from 2nd Cavalry Regiment moves forward in a simulated attack serial
LEFT: An Abrams from the
1st Armoured Regiment amongst hundreds of vehicles at Shoalwater Bay Training Area
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