Page 40 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019

LAND FORCES
LAND 400
“Since signature of the Land 400 Phase 2 contract in August 2018, RDA says it has recruited more than 100 employees.
RHEINMETALL
The first Australian Boxer came from Germany earlier this year. The first 25 are being produced in Europe with the balance made in Australia.
fully-enclosed 100 metre firing tunnel for testing weapons up to 35mm; and a high security prototype workshop and systems integration laboratory.
Importantly, the MILVEHCOE has been designated as the global home for the design and manufacture of Rhein- metall’s Lance turret, a modular sys- tem whose manned version fitted with a Mauser MK30-2/ABM (Airburst Mu- nition) 30mm automatic cannon and 7.62mm coaxial machinegun will equip the 133 CRV reconnaissance variants be- ing acquired under Land 400 Phase 2. The same turret configuration has been proposed by Rheinmetall for the Lynx KF41 under Phase 3.
The fully digital turret can mount a vari- ety of medium-calibre guns ranging from
25mm to 40mm and is designed for inte- gration into numerous medium and heavy wheeled and tracked platforms. As such it has clear export potential.
Phase 2 timeline
The delivery of the first 25 CRVs from Europe through to 2021 meets an early capability requirement by the Common- wealth for familiarisation and training purposes. This initial tranche will com- prise 13 multipurpose CRVs and 12 re- connaissance variants.
The first two CRVs, both turretless mul- tipurpose platforms, arrived unheralded in Brisbane in mid-July. Both are now being modified prior to final delivery to Army with Australian-specific communications and battlefield management systems, and
the Australian Army’s three-colour disrup- tive paint pattern.
It’s understood that at least the first tranche of vehicles will be fitted on ar- rival with Kongsberg Protector remote weapon stations (RWS) previously used on Army ASLAVs deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
To reduce integration risk, fitting the more capable EOS R4009 Mk 2 RWS to reconnaissance variants is not expected to begin until after domestically-produced turrets become available.
Workforce
Since signature of the Land 400 Phase 2 contract in August 2018, RDA says it has recruited more than 100 employees. A further 150 personnel will be hired in Queensland by early next year.
As of August RDA had around 30 Aus- tralian engineers in Europe working on the Boxer program primarily in Kassel (wheeled vehicle production) and Unter- luess (turret production) who will tran- sition back to the MILVEHCOE after completing assignments of up to 18 month,
40 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au