The first tangible evidence that the 2,500 protected and unprotected medium and heavy trucks contracted for the ADF under the painfully protracted progress of Project Land 121 Phase 3B are on their way to Australia will appear in mid-2015 with the arrival of a number of vehicles for verification purposes.
And later that year, prime contractor Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles Australia (RMMVA) will move into an integration facility in the Brisbane area where truck cabins and chassis shipped from the parent company’s production line in Vienna will be married with a variety of modules manufactured by Australian subcontractors.
These developments have been a long time in coming. Vehicle evaluation began more than a decade ago, specifications were chopped and changed, and it was not until December 2011 that Rheinmetall MAN’s HX vehicle series was selected in preference to Thales Australia’s Bushmaster Utility and Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific’s Actros and all-terrain Zetros vehicle series.
According to informed sources, there was then a four-month gap before DMO engaged with the preferred tenderer – presumably a contributing factor to the 19 months between selection and contract signature to which attention was drawn in Senate Estimates in June.
Contracts The HX series will replace the ADF’s current fleet of hard-worked Unimog, Mack and S-Liner trucks.
Although the value of the contract signed with RMMVA in July 2013 was not disclosed, sources close to the program put it at $1.58 billion. This will acquire medium and heavy recovery vehicles, heavy variants (self-loading hook lift trucks, fuel trucks and tippers), medium-weight variants (tray, tray with crane, and tippers), together with about 3,000 modules.
Under a separate $400 million contract, 1,700 trailers are to be supplied by Haulmark Trailers (Australia) from their Rocklea facility in southeast Queensland.
A potential bonus waits in the wings, with the possibility of additional vehicles, modules and trailers being acquired, contingent on both companies’ performance, under the aegis of (as yet unapproved) Land 121 Phase 5B.
Testing & integration Defence says the staggered verification process beginning in mid-2015 will take approximately five months for each vehicle variant, and range from the examination of existing test evidence through to specific acceptance tests and user trials. Verification on some later-delivered variants including fuel tankers will occur towards the end of 2016.
At the same time RMMVA will be checking the functionality of prototype modules against contractual specifications, along with the precision of their manufacture to ensure they align with fitting points on their host vehicles.
Delivery of an initial tranche of truck systems from the Brisbane integration facility will begin in mid-2016 to support training development and training delivery activities. Series production will commence post-verification, with deliveries ramping up to 70-80 vehicles a month from 2017 through to final deliveries in mid-2020.
The composition of each delivery batch will be determined by Defence, requiring a parallel production schedule for the relevant modules.
As of August the precise location and size of the integration facility had yet to be decided, although RMMVA said it was likely to be large enough to accommodate a buffer stock of pre-integration vehicles to guard against any potential delays to deliveries caused by shipping issues. Integrated vehicles will be handed over to the Commonwealth at Damascus Barracks at Meeandah, near Brisbane airport.
The Integrated Baseline Review (IPR) for Land 121 Phase 3B, contracted to occur in February, did not take place until July due to slower than anticipated signups by RMVVA of key subcontractors.
This delay had triggered stop payments by the Commonwealth, Major-General Paul McLachlan, Head Land Systems at the DMO, confirmed at Senate Estimates on 3 June.
Maj-Gen McLachlan acknowledged that getting into contract “had taken an extensive amount of time,” but “it was not late.”
The provisional design review process had been particularly successful “and we have a really good response from Rheinmetall, with the provision of engineering expertise to get that done probably ahead of where we thought we might be doing it.”
Final negotiations with subcontractors were expected to be completed by September, RMVVA Managing Director Peter Hardisty told ADM in early August.
Agreement had been reached with Sydney-based RPC Technologies, who will manufacture a heavy truck-based, truck-launched floating bridge, and Canberra-based Sea Box International who will produce patented flat-rack logistics platforms with folding arms, enabling them to be stacked on vehicles and transported eight at a time.
Still to be finalised were subcontractors to handle the in-country integration on the vehicles of digital communications systems, including protection against electronic countermeasure and electromagnetic interference; and the manufacture of the water and bulk fuel modules.
“A number of the modules will resemble shipping containers of varying sizes with different fitouts,” explained Dr Hanna Duczek, RMMVA’s Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications.
“Some contain a workshop, some provide storage. We’ve got fuel tankers with pumps, water tankers and water pump modules; we’ve got tippers, heavy bulk fuel carriers, and the heavy tractor that will replace the tank transporters.
“This is the first time the ADF will have logistics vehicles with armoured cabins to protect their crews against mine blasts and ballistics threats.
“It’s also the first time the ADF will have vehicles with integrated load handling systems allowing them to move their own pallets and containerised modules as required without having to rely on forklifts or cranes.”
Ramp up Early speculation about RMMVA’s ability to execute a contract of such size was based not so much on resources but on the fact that the company had not previously delivered a major program in Australia, Dr Duczek commented.
“We’re a new participant in Australian defence contracts and everyone knows we did not have a large footprint, but we’re ramping up our integrated project team as required by the contract, not because the Commonwealth thought we should.
“We’ve opened a Melbourne office with 60 personnel including engineers seconded from Germany, we work closely with our counterparts in procurement, engineering, production, finance and commercial, and we have direct reporting lines to Munich and Vienna.”
Protected vs. unprotected Unlike the Rheinmetall MAN trucks in service with the UK and entering service with New Zealand, the ADF’s protected cabins will feature integrated rather than modular armour. This will not affect the Australian fleet’s cross-country mobility, including the ability to ford water up to 1.1 metres deep.
Defence says the integrated armour will provide an enhanced level of land mine/Improvised Explosive Device protection compared to what it describes as the older, modular armour cabins.
“As the ADF will be purchasing both protected and unprotected vehicles, flexibility will be afforded by employing the appropriate variant for the task, noting that it is unlikely that unprotected vehicles would be deployed on an operation unless it was a humanitarian task,” a spokesperson noted.
In practical terms this means unprotected vehicles are likely to be largely restricted to tactical training.
Although RMMVA declined to provide ADM with details of the protected/unprotected mix, other sources disclosed that of the 2,536 vehicles under contract, less than half will have integrated armoured cabins.
The largest number of protected vehicles will comprise well over half of both the 822 medium weight trucks carrying stores and maintenance modules, and the 327 heavy variants equipped with an integrated load handling system and transporting bulk fuel, water, and heavy stores.
For the record, vehicles to be delivered are (number of protected cabins in brackets): Medium weight tray 822 (560); medium weight tray and crane 96 (141); medium weight tipper 15 (24); medium weight recovery 14 (15); heavy recovery 22 (37); heavy tractor 89 (21); heavy with integrated load handling system 327 (232); heavy tipper 66 (33); and heavy bulk fuel 22 (0).
The heavy recovery vehicles will be equipped with a recovery module made by the US company Miller Industries Towing Equipment of Tennessee. In service with the Danish armed forces, Miller modules integrated with Rheinmetall MAN’s SX-series heavy tactical recovery vehicles are able to recover disabled vehicles weighing up to 40 tons or containers weighing up to 17 tons.
Importantly, Defence emphasises that all the vehicles on order are being built to a contracted specification which RMMVA has confirmed it can satisfy from within its existing range of products.
Whilst all these vehicles are based on mature technology, they will nevertheless reflect technical advances, improvements resulting from previous production runs, legislative demands, and client feedback.
Australian Industry Content Australianisation of the future fleet is limited to bracketry and cabling necessary to accommodate ADF-specific radios, battle management systems, and weapons, together with lighting and signage compliant with Australian Design Rules. The ADF has also specified the EURO V emission requirement, unlike the UK and New Zealand fleets which comply with the EURO IV standard.
Defence says this work will be undertaken on the production line in Austria, leaving in-country acquisition work to module and trailer manufacture and fitting, C4I integration, and final fit-out of vehicles with equipment such as fire extinguishers and shovels.
Overall Australian Industry Content (AIC) for Land 121 Phase 3B is contracted at no less than 35 per cent, but this incorporates both the RMMVA and Haulmark agreements.
RMMVA’s public AIC plan states that the level of AIC is estimated at more than $475 million, a figure which represents a local content value of just over 30 per cent of the acquisition contract.
The level of AIC content is calculated based on the value of work to be undertaken in Australia, including that performed by RMVVA’s subcontractors, Defence says. It does not include the value of work attributed to an Australian company but completed offshore.
A 10-year support contract dating from delivery of the first production batch of vehicles and modules has been signed with RMVVA. Under this the company will conduct heavy grade repairs on behalf of Defence to major components - primarily the engine and transmission – conduct engineering studies, and supply spares.
The contract is linked to key performance indicators and operation of the acquisition contract, and includes options to extend for additional periods of between four and 10 years up to a maximum of 40 years.
RMVVA is obliged under the contract to establish a centre of excellence in southeast Queensland for spares distribution and repairs, but it’s not yet clear whether the company collocate this with the integration facility, or establish it elsewhere to tie in with the requirements of Plan Beersheba.
Operation of the range of HX vehicles is largely identical. The same applies to maintenance and repair of the vehicles, engines and drive trains, substantially simplifying logistics.
According to the manufacturer, this has enabled the UK, with 7,000 Rheinmetall MAN vehicles in service, to reduce its previous logistic vehicle parts inventory stock from 30,000 line items to less than 7,000.
