Hot off the press!, page-1544

https://www.australiandefence.com.au/defence/land/hanwha-announces-land-400-phase-3-team/1000

The company is teaming with EOS Group and Elbit Systems, with a vehicle based on the South Korean Army’s K21 Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) and designated AS21 Redback.

The Australian version will have an EOS T2000 turret (fitted with an ATK 30mm cannon) and R400 Remote Weapons Station (RWS) and Elbit will furnish the Battlefield Management System (BMS) as well as its Iron Fist Active Protection System (APS) and Iron Vision see-through armour system.

Hanwha has previously announced that if it is successful in the competition, it will build a new facility in the Greater Geelong area to produce vehicles for the ADF and also, possibly, for export.

“We’re very proud that Hanwha has chosen Victoria as the place where it will seek to base its operations in Australia,” the Victorian Government’s Minister for Jobs Martin Pakula said at the teaming announcement.

“To have global companies based here in Victoria delivering cutting edge technology for the Australian and global defence markets is something that is very important to us.”

Under a two-stage program, Hanwha is proposing to build the chassis of the first 50 AS21 in South Korea, while simultaneously transferring technology to the local industry base in Geelong. Local industry will perform systems integration with the EOS Australian-made turrets and Government Furnished Equipment (GFE).

Stage two will see the local manufacture of 350 vehicles, beginning in the middle of 2025.