Geelong bid for defence hub deal still alive
GEELONG’S chances of becoming home to an advanced fighting vehicle manufacturing hub at the centre of an Australian defence program worth more than $10 billion are down to 50:50.
Hanwha Defence Australia (HDA) is one of just two companies moving into a 12-month testing stage to deliver infantry fighting vehicles under the Land 400 Phase 3 project.
The South Korean company wants Geelong to be internationally recognised as the home of the Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicle. It is up against German defence contractor Rheinmetall, which is pitching the Lynx KF41.
Both companies will progress to a risk mitigation program to test the vehicles under operational conditions.
The Phase 3 Land 400 project will replace the Australian Army’s ageing M113 armoured personnel carriers with up to 450 infantry fighting vehicles.
Should Hanwha win the final contract, it has pledged to base its operations in the Geelong region. Hanwha is also a leading contender for the Federal Government’s reactivated program to acquire 30 self-propelled howitzers, together with support vehicles and systems that Hanwha said it would incorporate into its Geelong operations if successful.
HDA strategy director Ashley Wright said Hanwha wanted to embed world’s best practice defence manufacturing standards from Korea here and support its much larger export market from a proposed Geelong base.
“Our defence production facility has the potential to generate over 400 direct jobs and 2000 to 3000 indirect jobs for the greater Geelong area,” Mr Wright said. “We look forward to integrating with Geelong as a defence production partner over the next half-century and beyond.”
The Geelong Defence Alliance, a collaboration between Geelong-based industry and other stakeholders, has strongly supported Hanwha’s bid to develop a presence here.
Alliance chairman Joe Farrah said local industry was ready to exercise a wide range of capability in support of Hanwha’s Land 400 bid.