Page 10 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2022

10 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
JUNE 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NEW AUSTRALIAN AIRSHOW ANNOUNCED
DAVE TORRANCE AND NIGEL PITTAWAY | BRISBANE
AN all-new Australian airshow was launched on 27 April and will be held on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The event will be known as the Pacific Airshow Gold Coast and is a sister event to the successful Pacific Airshow, held at Huntington Beach in southern California. The annual event will be a waterfront air- show featuring both civil and military per- formers and will be held each August, be- ginning in 2023. The event will be run by the organisers of the US event, Code Four.
The 2021 US event was seen by more than three million people and the show is the only event in the US to win the US Air Force Show Site of the Year, in 2018 and 2019.
“The timing couldn’t be better, given the bilateral relationships that are continuing to propagate between the US and Australia and this is an opportunity for us to continue to take steps forward in that regard,” Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott told ADM. “The Gold
ARMY SELECTS HIMARS
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
Coast is a global event desti- nation, it’s an iconic destina- tion with major event infra- structure. There aren’t many places that have a beautiful long, straight beach and that have the infrastructure to be able to accommodate some- thing like this.”
ABOVE: Canadian Forces Snowbirds approaching the crowd at Pacific Airshow, held at Huntington Beach in southern California.
The timing of the air-
show is aligned around the conclusion of the Talisman Sabre and the beginning of Pitch Black biennial exercises and hopes to leverage participation from as- sets that will be already in-country. “The US military has given us positive indi- cations that they are inclined to support the event,” Elliott said.
But he added that the event is not just an airshow, but an event which will even- tually grow to have many other attrac- tions, including STEM displays.
THE Australian Army is seeking to acquire the Lockheed Martin M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) under a US$385 million deal.
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on 27 May that Australia had been granted Congres- sional approval to purchase the system.
Covered under the approval are 20 M142 HIMARS, 30 M30A2 Guided Multiple
LEFT: High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems
of the US Army and US Marine Corps launch rockets during a firepower demonstration in Australia.
“We are working with local industry to curate that, because one of the biggest chal- lenges is inspiring young people to want to work in aviation,” he said. “Encouraging programs such as [Boeing’s] Loyal Wing- man and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle technology by bringing all of that to the Gold Coast and provide something that people can see, touch and understand. Also provid- ing Defence with an opportunity for recruit- ment and forming ongoing partnerships with local universities.
Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS), 30 Alter- native Warhead (AW) pods with Insensitive Munitions Propulsion Systems (IMPS), 30 M31A2 GMLRS Unitary (GMLRS-U) High Explosive Pods with IMPS, 30 XN403 Ex- tend Range GMLRS AW pods, 30 EM404 ER GMLRS Unitary Pods ad 10 M57 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).
HIMARS has been demonstrated to the Army during recent Talisman Sabre exer- cises and it is worth noting that the launch- er is capable of firing the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). Last August, Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US Department of Defense for the development of the PrSM weapon.
The ADF is seeking to acquire a new, long-range, rocket artillery system by the mid-2020s, as initially proposed in the 2016 White Paper and confirmed by the 2020 Defence Strategic Update (DSU 2020) and Force Structure Plan (FSP 2020). The initial work on the acquisition of such a capability is a $0.6 to 0.9 billion Long-Range Fires program is being under- taken under Land 8113 Phase 1.
DEFENCE
WINGS PR/CODE FOUR