Despite the extraordinary level of concern by Defence about the releasability of Land 400 information when it’s not ‘officially’ in the DCP, a number of companies will be promoting the systems they propose for Land 400 at the Land Warfare Conference.
In the process they will need to avoid discussing with those interested any information they may have gleaned from the closed Land 400 Land Environment Working Group (LEWG) briefing the day before the conference.
No doubt there will be some ex-FRES Utility Vehicle (UV) contenders including GD’s Piranha V (provisionally selected and then withdrawn), the ARTEC Boxer and the NEXTER VBCI, and of course the contenders for the Specialist Vehicle, which seems to have displaced the UV series.
The FRES Specialist Vehicles program aims to provide a range of vehicles including reconnaissance, engineering and battlefield medical variants, based on a tracked chassis.
The CV90, offered by BAE Systems, and ASCOD SV, offered by General Dynamics UK, were put forward as potential reconnaissance vehicles and were awarded assessment-phase contracts in November 2008.
In July 2009 the MoD invited BAE Systems and General Dynamics UK to help it develop new reconnaissance vehicles for the British Army as part of the FRES Scout Vehicles program.
On March 22 2010, the MoD announced that General Dynamics UK had been awarded a development contract to build the FRES SV.
The £500 million contract for the demonstration phase of seven prototype vehicles was announced on 1 July 2010.
GD Land Systems Australia will be proposing the ASCOD SV for the tracked component of Land 400 and has yet to decide whether it will offer the Piranha V or a modernised Stryker for the wheeled AFV component, in addition to other vehicles.
BAE Systems Australia will be proposing two armoured combat vehicles – the tracked CV90 MkIII Armadillo and wheeled RG41 vehicles.
The CV90 Armadillo is an armoured personnel carrier variant lacking the turret of previous models and combining high levels of protection with excellent mobility.
Its modular design includes a rear roof section which can be unbolted to allow simple changeover between different mission packages.
The vehicle’s crew consists of commander, driver and gunner plus eight dismounted troops.
Developed by the former OMC business in South Africa, BAE Systems’ RG41 was designed to better withstand landmines than existing vehicles.
Its modular design is meant to be repairable in the field, provide excellent mobility and a comfortable ride, and carry up to 11 tonnes.