I'm sure export variants would come with a whole family of variants or a couple of VLS tubes, perhaps.
MARKMILES77
Well-Known Member
Government commits to $2.3 billion doubling of Army long-range strike fleet
so, a second regiment of HIMARS it is.
so, a second regiment of HIMARS it is.
and Rheinmetall.So yesterday was appeasing Thales, today Lockheed Martin…
Perhaps it's a tax that we all have to pay in order to play. It would be nice if the world stayed safe and gave everyone time to think and quibble over every detail in great depth. But the rapid integration of low cost high-tech manufacturing offers no such comfort. What happens when fishing fleets show up with drone footage of there own. Are you going to be the ones who confiscate mobile phones in my international waters. Maritime surveillance used to be only available to state actors, no longer.
I’d rather they were appeased Rheinmetall by providing a Cavalry Regiment’s worth of vehicles to 1 Brigade, which at present is the only brigade in 1DIV that doesn’t have it’s own Cav…
I get the focussed force concept, I’m not sure it’s where we want to be though when it delivers the reality that one of our 3 brigade commanders is afforded no recon, screening, escort or direct fire assets of their own to employ…
Takao
The Bunker Group
There is meant to be a project that progressively upgrades Bushmaster. Its.... well, nonetheless, there is meant to be a project. It doesn't make sense though, it costs a lot to bring an old car mostly up to modern specs, and you can't really do anything that might be structural (new armour for instance).
Having a constant production line works for mobilisation reasons, it keeps the latest versions in the units (with various OEMs building demonstrating workpackages that the ADF can pick from (a'la the IBTN)), and it gives a bunch of perfectly acceptable vehicles each year for DFAT to donate as they see fit. Rip the ADF comms out of those cars, add in the Australian designed and built comms system that we have successfully exported and you keep two industries going. All for less that the current project.
There was a quite mature continuous land build program (all B- and A-vehicles minus MBT) built in 2020. It was held back in favour of maturing the ship building program. That was dusted off in 2025 and updated; but I don't know if it ended up being accepted and rolled out.
But a continuous build of everything makes sense and allows the production of (a) variants (that may be more politically acceptable to the government that slashed numbers in the first place) like an ambulance (note we have no ambulance that can recover casualties from a battlefield...), mortar or C2; and (b) the numbers to make an actual Bde / Div. It also (for the reasons listed in Bushmaster above) makes financial and tactical sense.
Not in the slightest. The maths are buried here, but from memory we've ~50% the tanks and ~20% the IFVs we need.
Yes. Nothing more needs to be said.
And you need a Div to meet the NDS.....regardless of the recovered Air/Land Gap of the 1980s that we have now
Yup. Last I was in a Regt (looks back; gosh I'm old....) all the C2 variants had a APU and about half my troop carrying variants.
Pretty neat actually. Worked really well.
Thank goodness. The Strikemaster was an abysmal attempt to answer the need - and failed to do so
Fixed it for you....
Look, I know they are coming. But at this point I just want what we ordered.....
The boats ADMk2! The boats! It's a littoral capability, so don't need that stuff (excuse me while I go puke......)
OCR rate = 4.10%. If the GOTD mismanages budget increases and there are big whole percentage points to go in. Then The Government will blow past the reserve banks 4.35% forcast, turning procurement into a self-fulfilling spiral of doom. Labour has form on this; there is going to be a little bit from here and a little bit over there, but it's not just defence, high technology and high energy demand industry that need tiered rate hikes and automation, because if the government dumps north of ten billion into the budget without setting up a supply chain first, energy costs will struggle to meet the original cost estimates. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have to be turned into tech hubs, SEA 3000 accelerated as a matter of urgency, along with AUKAS. some big moves lads, good luck.
The EOS Apollo system is currently mounted in a 20' ISO container so I think the challenge will be to mount that into the hybrid Bushie under development as the battery will be able to supply full power without needing the diesel running. I doubt there'll be room for a second RWS.
It's good to see real urgency and drive in getting these CuaS capabilities into the field.
NT Defence Strategy 2026.
Northern Territory Defence Strategy 2026 PDF (7.2 MB).
4 LCM + 2 LCH to be based in Darwin.
Interested to see how SLV Matilda 1 trials go.
Northern Territory Defence Strategy 2026 PDF (7.2 MB).
4 LCM + 2 LCH to be based in Darwin.
Interested to see how SLV Matilda 1 trials go.