Thales originally proposed Bushmaster and Oshkosh MTVR derivatives for LAND 121’s MHC vehicle segment, but only Bushmaster made the down-select. Photo credit Thales Australia
The Australian Army’s multi-phase Project Overlander (Land 121) traces its origins back to the mid- 1990s, however, it would be August 2003 before the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) issued industry with an invitation to register interest (ITR), and the project finally began any tangible move forward.
The aim of Land 121 has always
It was disclosed in February 2010 that comparative evaluation testing for Land 121’s delayed MHC vehicle segment had been completed and that a down-select to Mercedes-Benz, MAN and Thales had been made. Photo credit Mercedes Benz
been to replace the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) entire light, medium and heavy logistic vehicle and trailer fleets, which around the time of the initial ITR were stated to comprise approximately 7,700 vehicles, 3,100 trailers and 750 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), the oldest of which had been delivered in 1959. At this early stage the Land 121 requirement covered six generic fleet ranges incorporating more than 80 vehicle variants, and respondents were asked to offer alternative private sector financing strategies for the project. It was announced in December 2005 (some 12 months later than industry had been lead to believe) that Land 121 tenders involving medium/ heavy vehicles and modules (known as the MHC segment) had been released to a shortlist of nine companies, these being the then ADI Limited, the then DaimlerChrysler Australia-Pacific, General Dynamics Land Systems- Australia, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Mack
Trucks Australia, Scania Australia, the then Stewart & Stevenson, the then Tenix Defence, and Terex Corporation. By early 2006 three requests for tender (RFT) worth up to AUD600 million and covering Phase 3a of Land 121 had been issued. In addition to the restricted element in the medium/heavy vehicles and modules tender (MHC), an open tender had been issued for the light range of vehicles and modules (LLC), while the third RFT (involving trailers and the remaining motorcycles etc) had been restricted to Australian-based manufacturers capable of supplying a proprietary product. All offers were required to include a through-life support component of potentially 15 + 15 years, giving a potential 30-year relationship.
These initial Land 121 Phase 3a
RFTs involved superseding the ADF’s high-readiness fleet of 1,400 medium, heavy and light vehicles, 1,300 trailers and 1,200 specialist modules. Land 121 Phase 3b, the replacement of
Phase 5 will provide the ADF with an estimated 2,000 unprotected
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) vehicles
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