Page 98 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec19-Jan20

98 PROJECTS LAND
DECEMBER 2019 – JANUARY 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ARMY PROGRAMS HIT 2019 MILESTONES
As befits Army’s largest-ever capital program, attention in 2019 was firmly fixed on developments in Project Land 400 Phases 2 and 3 and progress towards enhancing the mounted close combat capability of the Land Force.
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
THE first of 211 Rheinmetall Defence Boxer 8x8 Combat Re- connaissance Vehicles (CRV) being acquired under Phase 2 at a cost of $5.2 billion was formally handed over to De- fence Minister Linda Reynolds at Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane in September.
The turretless vehicle, painted in the Army’s three-colour disruptive camouflage, was the first of 25 Boxers – 13 mul- tipurpose and 12 reconnaissance variants – that are being manufactured in Germany through to 2021 to meet an ear- ly Commonwealth capability requirement for familiarisa- tion and training purposes.
Prior to delivery the 25 Boxers are being modified locally with Australian-specific communications and battlefield management systems, and fitted with Kongsberg Protector remote weapon stations (RWS) previously used on ASLAVs deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Production of the other 186 platforms – a mix of recon- naissance, command and control, joint fires, surveillance, ambulance and battlefield repair and recovery variants – will begin in late 2022 at the $170 million Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE) under construction by Rheinmetall Australia at Ipswich. This will be Rhein- metall’s largest facility outside Germany.
To reduce integration risk, fitting the more capable EOS R400 Mk 2 RWS to the 133 turreted reconnaissance variants is not expected to begin until after digital Lance
turrets mounting a Mauser-2/ABM (Air Burst Munition) 30mm automatic cannon become available from the Ips- wich facility, probably sometime in 2023.
On full completion in late 2020 the MILVEHCOE will provide the capability for fully-owned subsidiary Rhein- metall Defence Australia (RDA) to manufacture, sustain and upgrade not only current and future Rheinmetall ve- hicles in service with the ADF, but potentially also those operated by militaries across the region.
LAND 400 PHASE 3
October saw contracts for risk mitigation activities signed by the two tracked contenders shortlisted the previous month for the $10-15 billion acquisition under Land 400 Phase 3 of up to 450 modern Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) and 17 manoeuvre support vehicles. These will re- place obsolescent M113AS4 armoured personnel carriers expensively upgraded between 2007 and 2012.
The $50 million contracts involve a two-year test and evaluation program at sites across Australia for Rheinmetall Defence’s Lynx KF41 IFV and Hanwha Defence’s AS21 Redback IFV. Both companies have a one-year mobilisation phase to each provide three trial vehicles, at least one of which will be tested to destruction in the following 12 months.
Towards the end of 2021 the project will then move to the final evaluation phase and down-select of a preferred
RHEINMETALL