Thuel

There you have it! “The ABC can reveal the German and Korean companies bidding for the rescoped program have been asked to provide options for an Australian build, or complete overseas production of the IFVs with local support.” https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/102395168

With the Strategic Defence Review reducing the LAND400 Phase 3 - Land Combat Vehicle System (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) from 450 to 129 vehicles, there are still several details which would be interesting to understand. The original tender for 450 vehicles included several variants including Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Joint Fires, Mortar, Command & Control, Combat Engineer, and Ambulance. The wording in the SDR specifically referred to (Infantry Fighting Vehicle), does this insinuate that the other variants will not be included, some or all of the variants will be included in the 129, or some or all of the variants will be procured in addition to the 129. Also, if the variants are excluded or otherwise, which new or existing vehicles will be used to provide those capabilities, if at all. While continued industry support was also discussed in the SDR, primarily around naval manufacturing, what might the impact of the reduced purchase, re-pricing, and negotiation mean. As a primary motivation is to reallocate savings to other projects, could commitments to the percentage of components or vehicles to be manufactured in Australia be relaxed to keep the price down, and, would this benefit either Rheinmetall or Hanwha in finalising their bids. Also, as there is a stated pivot towards an iterative procurement approach encompassing getting minimum viable capability into service, will this project be subject to this approach, and if so, what would that mean for the systems which will be procured with the vehicles (ie RWS, APS, ATGMs, etc), which systems the vehicles may potentially be built for but not with, and which systems requiring further development and integration will be included.