Marshall Land Systems and Thales Australia have announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on vehicle opportunities in Australia, in particular Land 121 Project Overlander where Thales is offering the locally designed and manufactured Hawkei.
The MOU covers areas where the two companies’ capabilities, products and services complement each other, and where their interests can be jointly expanded, especially to provide turnkey solutions.
The MOU follows close cooperation between Marshall Specialist Vehicles Ltd and Thales UK on successful programs such as the Watchkeeper UAV and through the close cooperation developed on the Bushmaster Utility vehicles.
The MOU will initially be serviced by Marshall Land Systems’ company Marshall Specialist Vehicles (MSV), but will eventually migrate to the new Marshall Land Systems company in Australia, Marshall Land Systems Pty Ltd.
Thales also launched the first working prototype of the Hawkei at the Land Warfare Conference last week.
Thales Australia managing director Chris Jenkins, a self-confessed petrol head, is proud of the Hawkei lineage and said that the Bushmaster production process, which saw the engagement of over 120 local SMEs in production, would be expanded for Hawkei.
There was also an emphasis from the Thales team that this vehicle, unlike the Bushmaster, had been designed for ease of manufacture while keeping costs low.
“The Hawkei has a higher level of protection than the Bushmaster and is undergoing rigorous testing in every way,” Jenkins said while outlining that the vehicle had already done 20,000 kilometres on the Angelsea test track.
He is confident that the company can deliver two beta version Hawkeis for Land 121 Ph 4 testing early next year.