Kal

"Variant" shovel-grenade launcher. Yes, you heard it right. Shovel GL firing VOG-25s.

Behold, the first images of the Howling Retriever:


The armor packages are... not small.
The weight of the structure and armor do however converge to a reasonable all up weight, as I planned.

For those not aware as to what a Howling Retriever is, well, it's a pre-war breed of canine from the Texas region, known for its aggressive tendencies:

 

My understanding is that the current 59 M1A1 AIM SA will return to the US as the new tanks are delivered. 
 
The inclusions are pretty extensive, to the point of turnkey. 
 

 
Someone dug up some of the pre-work in US disclosures. 
 

 
Zoomed in:
 

 
The $USD1.685b sticker price is the upper cost for what’s listed on the announcement. 
 
 

Will need clarification if these are upgrades of existing Australian Abrams, trading in existing Australian Abrams or that Australia will keep their current vehicles (into storage) and these are in addition to them.

Since this is the defacto Australia thread.
 
https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/australia-heavy-armored-combat-systems
 

Great update courtesy of DTR:
 


 
https://defencetechnologyreview.partica.online/defence-technology-review/dtr-apr-2021/flipbook/11/
 

No, definitely not

Somebody from the tender eval team couldn’t count the number of seats & seatbelts in the back of each vehicle? 
 
Given the sign has “tenderer’s claims” on it, it doesn’t seem either accurate or honest. Quite on-brand!

Video from Canberra.
 
 

Some more 
 

RMA roadshow marking the end of Phase 1 continues. 
 
Good that the tradition of bringing along the vehicle being replaced by one of the contenders continues into the phase of L400. 
 

5 sets of vents on one side, must be lucky number to confuse enemy for which one is the real.

5 sets of vents on one side, must be lucky number to confuse enemy for which one is the real.

Video of the AS21 Redback with the Elbit Systems MT30 turret test firing the Spike LR2
 
 

I do get the feeling that the bucket choice and location, along with the location of the excavator arm were determined by the chassis used as the base. Wheeled vehicles aren't the best for a massive solid dozer blade, there might be stress and balance issues...
 
IMHO, it seems they chose the platform first (and was probably chosen due to low cost & high strategic/road mobility) and then did what they could to make a viable engineering vehicle from it. Also, their obsession with road mobility in the Sahel would suggest they think the future use is going to be overwhelmingly in non-combat or counter-insurgency ops. Note how they directly mention trailer coupling ease / capability as a plus.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

so this is about as wide and as long as the abrams?
and as21 hull roof height is possibly abrams turret roof height?

Left side for the coax for Lynx. 

Two full page spread advertisements of the AS21 from DTR Magazine (https://defencetechnologyreview.partica.online/defence-technology-review/dtr-feb-2021/flipbook/24/).  
 

 

The pics you show are the show car version of LYNX, not a real config.  LANCE on BLOCK 1 BOXER has RHS coax, LANCE on RMA LYNX has coax LHS

KF31 is just a cut and shut MARDER.  PAy no attention to it :)
 

Precisely the type of MLU needed to keep IFVs relevant for the upcoming decade or so. 
I do wonder if Iron Fist is capable of dealing with drones and diving munitions which are the latest hotness or if that will require another system later on.

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/bae-systems-hagglunds-details-the-royal-netherlands-army-cv90-mlu

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-14/chinese-data-leak-linked-to-military-names-australians/12656668
 
Apparently australia has 35,000 citizens worthy of chinese intelligence.   No doubt this breaks all sorts of Australian privacy laws, but how to enforce it.

Not sure if this has been posted before:
 

 
from: https://thedeaddistrict.blogspot.com/2021/01/about-challenger-1-mbt-weight-breakdown.html