Land 400 the talk of the event

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It seemed like every other stand had a giant vehicle on site in preparation for Land 400.

BAE Systems formally announced that they had a teaming arrangement with Patria.

Boeing had an Italian Iveco-Oto Melara vehicle on their stand.

General Dynamics had a LAV model on their stand.

Rheinmetall had some of their Land 121 offerings on show but made it clear that Boxer and Puma are very much in the game.

There was much talk or turrets, drive trains, protection levels, weight trade offs and how the program office is looking at going forward.

The massive information dump from the program office in the fortnight leading up the conference was clarified in the Land Environment Working Group meeting by outgoing Land 400 Director general of Combined Armed Fighting Brigadier Nagy Sorial (who shipped out to the Middle East less than two weeks after the event) and incoming program lead Sarah Myers.

A RFT is due by the end of the year but there is some consternation in industry about what it will look like in terms of what the program is actually after.

As one industry source mentioned to ADM the current list of capabilities required ‘looks like the program office has gone brochure shopping and wants everything’.

The program office is leaving it up to industry as to what capabilities priorities they will choose to trade off (and cost).

Industry will have to offer up a MOTS and a MOTS Plus solution in order to lodge a compliant bid.

MOTS is considered a vehicle that can roll off a production line right now and is in currently service with another nation.

MOTS Plus is the same, but with Australian specific considerations in place.

There is also the possibility that the Commonwealth will ask for four MOTS vehicles for testing in order to go to the next round of consideration.

The up front investment by industry in order to provide said vehicles in the tight timeframe outlined, not knowing if one or more will go through blast testing, is causing some angst.

No doubt there will be further clarifications on how the program will look in detail once the RFT material is released.

ADM understands that there are some parts of industry who are weighing up whether or not the substantial bid costs are worthwhile investing in.

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