Chemring Australia’s new $30 million state-of-the-art air launched countermeasures manufacturing plant in Lara, Victoria was opened earlier this month.
The facility was built after the Commonwealth awarded Chemring a 10-year contract, worth $160 million in November 2008 to supply countermeasures and pyrotechnics to the Australian Defence Force.
The facility is the only countermeasures manufacturing plant in the Southern Hemisphere and is capable of producing flares of all configurations to satisfy the Australian Defence Force’s countermeasure needs.
It also includes an R & D capability to support the ADF in developing solutions to meet evolving threats.
The contract is a significant investment in regional Victoria in creating jobs.
The workforce has doubled from 30 to 60 and is looking to go up to 80.
The key success in developing new capability has been developing staff.
Managing director of Chemring Australia, Michael Flowers has stated that “there are people with the right core skill available locally.
“The company’s approach has been to recruit highly skilled local staff and train them in countermeasures specific elements”.
Chemring Australia plans to target the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as a key international opportunity and has engaged with Lockheed Martin to examine the opportunity within the Australian Industry Participation Program.
A milestone in the program was the approval late last year of a Manufacturing licensing Agreement by the US Government.
Chemring Australia also announced that its air launched countermeasures facility was ready to manufacture current generation flares and plans to start production of JSF flares.
This facility will enable the company to enter the international market for air launched countermeasures.