Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2022

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS INDO PACIFIC
JUNE 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LOW-RISK LITTORAL STRIKE PROPOSAL FROM KONGSBERG & THALES
KONGSBERG Defence Australia and Thales Australia have teamed to propose a low- risk littoral maritime strike capability for Defence as it seeks a land-based maritime strike capability under Land 4100 Phase 2.
The StrikeMaster proposal combines Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile - which will be acquired for RAN surface combat- ants from 2023 - and Thales’ Bushmaster utility variant, already developed for Army but not yet adopted.
Engineering work has already been done to prove that the concept is feasible and the proposal leverages a similar capa-
bility being developed with the US Marine Corps under the Navy Maritime Expedi- tionary Ship Interdiction System (NME- SIS) program, which combines the NSM with a variant of the US Joint Light Tacti- cal Vehicle (JLTV).
“The beauty of NSM is that it can be deck-launched off ships, off trucks or other vehicles and it can also be helicop- ter launched off the MH-60R,” explained Kongsberg Defence Australia General Manager John Fry. “We see this as a great opportunity if Defence wants to move out and get a maritime strike capability quick-
LEFT: The StrikeMaster concept combines Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile with the Bushmaster utility PMV developed by Thales.
ABOVE: A model of the StrikeMaster concept was on display at Kongsberg Defence Australia’s stand at Indo Pacific 2022
ly; it uses exactly the same missile - you take that canister off the ship and install it on a land vehicle.
“We’ve done the design work and from a space, weight and power perspective it’s well under payload limits of the vehicle. With a launcher and two missiles it weighs around three tonnes and from a size per- spective it essentially fits within the tray footprint.”
The 2020 Defence Force Structure Plan forecasts between $400 million and $500 million to be invested in a Land-Based Maritime Strike Missile from 2024.
VICTORIAN SME LIGHTING THE WAY
ONE of the many innovative Australian SMEs displaying their capabilities at Indo Pacific 2022 was Coolon, a family-owned advanced electronics company located in Victoria, which currently specialises in LED lighting.
Coolon is a 100 per cent Australian- owned company which employs around 75 people and has supplied ruggedised light- ing solutions to the mining industry for last 15 years. It has also done significant work for Defence, including providing lighting for the Navy’s Anzac-class frigates
under contract to BAE Systems, but was unfortunately one of the Australian SMEs to be impacted by the cancellation of the Attack-class submarine.
“Naval Group needed several lights with various functionalities. We were able to provide them with a single prod- uct that could meet all the requirements, while also improving safety, increasing reliability, decreasing maintenance and reducing their spare parts holdings,” Co- olon’s Director of Partnerships Taya Per- mezel explained.
The company has also supplied ex- ternal lighting for Rheinmetall’s Land 400 demonstration vehicles and is cur- rently in discussion with Hanwha Defense Australia around its Land 400 vehicles and lighting solutions for its produc- tion facility now under construction at Avalon.
“Sovereign local manufacturing capabil- ity has always been our priority and we are looking to further expand our export op- portunities. We want to be a part of the primes’ supply chains,” Permezel added.
KONGSBERG
NIGEL PITTAWAY