Page 74 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

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LAND FORCES SPH
JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BELOW: Hanwha Defense Australia will work with a number of local companies to bring the platform together.
The announcement the spokesperson refers to is the one made by the Prime Minister during the fed-
eral election campaign, which emphasised the government’s
‘Jobs and Growth’ mantra and specifically targeted at the Geelong region, which had been hit hard by the recent loss of the car industry.
“We will acquire 30 self-pro-
pelled howitzers and their support-
ing systems, and we will build them and
maintain them in Geelong, drawing on the large manufac- turing skills base in the region,” PM Morrison said at the time. “By reviving this project, we will deliver the Army the capability it needs. By building it in Australia, we will create up to 350 jobs as part of growing our defence industry across the nation.”
At the same time, then Defence Minister Linda Reyn- olds said Government would bring forward the Protected Mobile Fires acquisition program, identified as Land 8116 Phase 1, with the first work to begin in Geelong at the end of the 2022-23 financial year.
Speaking at the launch of its industry team for its Land 400/3 bid in Melbourne in May 2020, Hanwha Defense Australia managing director Richard Cho revealed his com-
“HANWHA DEFENSE IS THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA’S LARGEST DEFENCE SUPPLIER AND HAS PRODUCED MORE THAN 7,000 ARMOURED VEHICLES TO DATE, INCLUDING IFVS, SPH SYSTEMS, COMBAT ENGINEERING VEHICLES AND MOBILE ARMOURED AIR DEFENCE SYSTEMS.”
pany had then recently made an unsolicited offer to govern- ment to build 30 AS9 SPHs and 15 AS10 AARVs in Geelong. “I think the notion of our unsolicited proposal stated the process, (but) ultimately I think there has been a need within the Australian Department of Defence for a self- propelled gun,” Cho said. “So, I guess it wasn’t just our
offer, but the need.”
The Commonwealth subsequently released a sole-source
Request for Tender (RFT) to Hanwha Defense Australia, as the preferred supplier, on September 3, 2020, to prog-
ress the first phase of the Protected Mobile Fires capabil- ity, comprising 30 AS9s and 15 AS10s.
“The acquisition of this capability will provide the ADF with the mobility, lethality and protection required to sup- port Joint Force operations in the land domain,” then De- fence Minister Reynolds said. “The self-propelled howit- zers will be built in the Geelong region, with ongoing deep maintenance conducted in the same Australian facility to support the systems throughout their service life.”
Defence said it completed four key activities in support of the sole-source tender, including SmartBuyer workshops to identify risks and opportunities; a Request for Information (RFI) to identify and understand potential suppliers; an in- dependent market analysis to provide a second assessment of the suppliers who responded to the RFI; and the solicita- tion of independent legal advice to ensure Commonwealth rules had been adhered to and probity maintained.
“This process gave the government confidence that Hanwha Defense Australia was the only vendor capable of meeting Defence’s specific requirements within the pa- rameters directed by Government,” a Defence spokesper- son explained.
Hanwha’s tender response was received by the Common- wealth on February 1, 2021 and is now under evaluation.
“Defence will then consider the need for an Offer Definition Improvement Activity before proceeding into contract negotiations. This will allow Government to for- mally consider selection of the Huntsman family of vehi- cles and their supporting systems at Second Pass.”
Second Pass approval is anticipated in the first quarter of 2022, with the acquisition programmed into the 2020 Force Structure Plan between $0.9 and $1.3 billion up to 2030. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) is expected to be achieved in FY 25/26, with Final Operational Capabil- ity planned to follow in FY 27/28.
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