Defence Business: Hawkei breaks cover | ADM Feb 2011
Gregor Ferguson | Brisbane
Five of the six contenders for the Army’s Protected Mobility Vehicle (Light) project, Land 121 Ph 4, were on display at the Land Warfare Conference.
The chance to eyeball them under the same roof highlighted significant differences between the design approaches of the two JLTV contenders present - the BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin vehicles - and the Manufactured and Support in Australia (MSA) option contenders: General Dynamics, Force Protection and Thales Australia.
Even the MSA contenders showed significant differences between each other, with the Thales Hawkei showing a much lower profile than ether the Force Protection Ocelot or the General Dynamics Eagle IV.
The ADF’s requirement for up to 1,300 vehicles makes this the largest non-US program of its kind in the world and has triggered some innovative design work and significant attention to Australian industry involvement.
Thales Australia used LWC to launch its Hawkei PMV(L) contender, with the first prototype on show, which it is offering in partnership with Israeli firm Plasan Sasa and Boeing Australia.
The vehicle incorporates Thales integrated Vehicle Electronic Architeture (VEA) which provides a C4I backbone and simple integration of future C4I equipment to be acquired under projects such as Land 125/75 and JP2072.
The Hawkei can also accommodate a Remote Weapon Station (RWS).
The Hawkei was designed by Plasan’s chief designer Nir Kahn and is the only contender to address the ADF’s specific requirements from the ground up.
Essentially, the vehicle was designed with utility in mind – the vehicle should be functional and efficient with its protection invisible to the user.
Kahn told ADM he sought to balance weight, mobility and protection in a low-profile design with four passenger doors and a tail gate and a lower step height than the other MSA contenders, while still incorporating a v-shaped under-belly and blast absorption system.
Designing a light but highly protected vehicle is a zero-sum game, Kahn told ADM: every design feature becomes a trade-off.
The Hawkei focuses on protecting the occupants rather than the drive train: a powerful IED will likely render a comparatively light vehicle like this undriveable in any case, so the design compromises favour occupant protection rather than external mechanical components.
Much of the protection comes from quick-release B-Kit armour which can be removed and then replaced quickly to enable air transport and provide an easy growth path for future protection upgrades.
The Hawkei employs Plasan’s “Kitted Hull” concept, with hull and armour components bonded and bolted together rather than using unitary all-welded steel construction.
This approach has a number of advantages, Kahn says: it allows ballistic material to be overlapped at seams, adding to protection; it enables the use of dissimilar materials for lightness or manufacturing convenience, where protection requirements allow; and it enables distributed manufacture of major sub-assemblies and components and rapid, simple assembly compared with a welded production line.
This in turn allows rapid ramp-up of production, and rapid, simple introduction of design changes or enhancements – and rapid battle damage repairs.
Plasan’s bonded and bolted construction technique has been proven on projects such as the US Army’s MRAP and M-ATV programs, says Kahn, and is the only way to ramp up rapidly to production rates of more than 1,200 vehicles a month, which would be impossible using welded high-hardness steel monocoque structures.
If selected for Land 121 Ph.4 the Hawkei will be built at Thales’s Bendigo plant.