Land Warfare: Thales eyes further Bushmaster sales | ADM Mar 08

1 March 2008

By Gregor Ferguson

Thales Australia is pursuing further sales of the Bushmaster Infantry Mobility Vehicle (IMV) to both the ADF and export customers.

The company has implemented the first round of product enhancements to satisfy a range of anticipated customer demands and reflect experience of a variety of threats encountered during operations in the Middle East.

The ADF has ordered nearly 700 Bushmasters: 443 under two phases of Project Land 116, and a further 254 under Phase 2 of Land 121 - Overlander.

Thales is eyeing further developments of Bushmaster to satisfy emerging ADF and export requirements including one for a vehicle able to resupply fighting vehicles such as the M1A1 Abrams tank with fuel and ammunition while offering protection to the crew.

This could provide the impetus for further development of the Copperhead 'ute' variant of Bushmaster which the company offered unsuccessfully for Ph.3 of Overlander.

Under Overlander Phase 4 Defence seeks vehicles with a 1-2 tonne payload and protection up to STANAG 4569 Level 2; the rule of thumb is that a protected vehicle needs about one tonne of mass for every kilogram of high explosive in the charge against which it must be protected.

The maths is fairly simple, believes Thales Australia - the Bushmaster Copperhead variant meets this criterion and has a payload of 4 tonnes and high levels of protection.

However, much will depend on the balance of payload and protection actually sought in the RFT, the company says.

On the export market, Thales has sold 25 Bushmasters to the Netherlands Army, equipped with a Survivability Enhancement Kit (SEK) and a 0.50in cal machine gun with Remote Control Weapon Station (RCWS) for patrol operations.

At the time of the LWC, Thales and its US partner Oshkosh were competing the US military Mine-Resistant Armoured Protection (MRAP) vehicle program.

The Bushmaster had been evaluated by the Pentagon for MRAP and had passed all the necessary tests, ADM was told, but no sales had eventuated under the first stage of the MRAP program.

It looks as if the Bushmaster has missed out on MRAP 2 as well, something which new Thales Australia managing director Chris Jenkins told ADM was "very disappointing".

Thales also bid for US Army's Medium Mine Protected Vehicle (MMPV) program; however, in January the US Army announced it had selected the BAE Systems RG33 as its preferred solution.

To bid for the MMPV contract Thales developed a 6x6 variant of the Bushmaster with side door access and the ability to carry both a higher payload and extra protection, along with embodying some of the survivability lessons from the Middle East.

The modifications increase gross vehicle weight by some 6-7 tonnes, though the design could be stretched to as much as 22 tonnes.

Notwithstanding the company's disappointing sales record in the USA, which some observers have put down to parochialism on the part of the US industry and defence community, the company is now pursuing significant export opportunities elsewhere.

Managing director Chris Jenkins declined to comment on reports of potential sales in the UK and south east Asia, when interviewed by ADM in February.