Land: W&E Platt running rings around the world | ADM March 2013

At a time in which many defence sector SMEs are being savaged by budget cuts and the high Australian dollar, one flourishing Sydney-based company is expanding its international customer base and continues to derive the majority of its revenue from export orders.

Located at Ingleburn on the western fringe of Sydney, W&E Platt has earned an international reputation out of all proportion to its size for the design, manufacture and installation of weapon mounts for soft-skinned and armoured military vehicles.

While the workforce remains steady at around 30 and annual turnover for the family-owned company exceeds $20 million, only a small percentage of revenue now comes from new sales to the ADF although Platt weapon mounts are ubiquitous on Australian infantry, cavalry and Special Forces vehicles.

The company’s reputation as a quiet achiever was further enhanced in January with the announcement that the United Arab Emirates had become its 15th export customer, ordering more than 50 modified MR550 manually-operated ring mounts to equip the country’s new Agrab Mk2 120mm mobile mortar systems.

As reported previously in ADM, the contract includes operator and maintainer training, a spares package and technical documentation; all of which will, as usual, be provided from the Ingleburn facility.

This was just the latest in a long series of export successes that had their genesis 25 years ago when Director Allan Platt’s father was asked if his small engineering workshop could repair RAN .50 calibre machine gun mounts.

It could and did, leading to a request by the SAS to develop a new type of .50 calibre mounting, and a subsequent focus by the company on the military market.

Fast forward, and more than 20,000 Platt weapon mountings are now in  service with the armed forces of Australia, the US, Germany, Singapore, NZ, Finland, Sweden, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.

Some 19,000 of these are Swing Mounts, with about 12,000 deployed on US Army and Marine Corps vehicles. These mounts first entered service on Australian Army ASLAV 8x8 cavalry vehicles in 1998, and several years later on the Bushmaster fleet, configured for either the Minimi 5.56mm or MAG-58 7.62mm machine guns.

The company’s first ring mount, an open unit known as the FW700 and configured predominantly for the M2 12.7mm heavy machine gun and Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launcher (AGL), first entered Australian service in 1997-98 on SASR 6x6 Long Range Patrol Vehicles and saw extensive combat service. A smaller open ring mount for Minimi/MAG-58, the MR660 Mod 1, now equips more than 850 existing and new production Bushmasters.

However, the need to reduce operator vulnerability drove in-house development of the MR family of protected ring mounts, described by the company as dominating the global market for manned protected weapon stations for light and medium armoured vehicles, tracked or wheeled.

While lacking the sophistication of remote weapon stations (RWS), the shielded mounts offer a practical alternative at what Allan Platt says can be as much as one-eighth the cost of an RWS.

This is amply demonstrated by their deployment on UN operations and in Afghanistan on platforms ranging from RG-31/RG-32 mine hardened armoured patrol vehicles to Viking and Warthog all-terrain tracked vehicles, FV432 Bulldog and M113 armoured personnel carriers, Iveco light tactical and Cougar armoured patrol vehicles, and Piranha/LAV 8x8 light armoured vehicles.

Protection on the mounts is scalable from STANAG Level 1 to STANAG Level 3 in line with prevailing threat levels, and weapon options range from a 5.56mm, 7.62mm or 12.7mm machine gun to a 40mm AGL. An additional feature is their ability to accommodate legacy Soviet-era weapons.

The site

The unprepossessing but high security Ingleburn facility is largely a final assembly site, consolidating components and subsystems manufactured by suppliers in NZ, South Korea, and elsewhere in Australia. The company continues to source the armour for its protected mounts from Sweden.

Locally, Allan Platt is less than enthusiastic about delays in Defence’s decision-taking and what he describes as its risk-averse approach to new technology, hence the company’s concentration on export markets.

Platt has its own business development managers based in Europe, the US and, most recently, Brazil. Platt himself travels widely to follow his policy of speaking with existing and potential users rather than procurement agencies.

“We put a lot of emphasis on getting out there with the troops. When we were equipping Iraqi special forces’ HMMWVs I went to Mosel and Fallujah to ensure I got accurate feedback. We value suggestions and complaints; we’re small enough and agile enough to get things done quickly and that’s appreciated.”

Platt acknowledges that the strength of the Australian dollar has been an impediment to sales, but not a major obstacle.

“We’re lucky in that we’ve got a relatively captive audience. By the time they come to us customers have pretty well made up their mind,” he comments.

While the company’s concentration on manually-operated low-tech and affordable solutions has served it well, it is now offering eDrive (electric drive) ring mounts with the option of battery-powered traverse. Weapon elevation is likely to be added.

Launch customer for the eDrive is Canada, where kits will be retrofitted in coming months to 29 Cougar 6x6 MRAP-style vehicles.

Under development is the Viper A1 one-man turret, designed to provide all-round protection for the gunner/commander while engaging targets in complex terrain such as urban areas where high weapon elevation is required.

Mounting a 12.7mm machine gun and a coaxial 40mm AGL or 7.62mm machine gun, the manually-operated turret is aimed at conscript and volunteer forces where uncomplicated operation coupled with minimal training and maintenance are essential.

Platt has also launched its Maximus mount that can be fitted to the upper roll cage structure common to most soft-skinned tactical vehicles. The mount enables a single gunner to sustain uninterrupted fire from twin weapons such as .50 calibre machine guns on a target for extended periods, a task usually requiring at least four personnel.

Signature management

But for Allan Platt, much of the way ahead lies in the range of Signature Management and Reduction Technology (SMART) suppressors the company has recently developed for tactical applications.

“The larger the calibre the greater the need, but every Steyr should have one,” he said.

“They minimise dust signature and suppress flash and noise as well as reducing recoil. Imagine the effect on an enemy who can’t locate any flash or originating noise. He’ll hear the sonic crack of a passing round but he won’t have a focal point.”

The suppressors are precision-engineered at Ingleburn into a single non-welded self-contained component, and are already available for 5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO weapons as well as a range of 9mm handguns.

Expressions of interest have already been received from the ADF and UK armed forces, the company says.