Australian Army Orders 214 Additional Thales Bushmaster Vehicles

Thales Australia has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement Jul. 3 that it will purchase an additional 214 Bushmaster vehicles for the Australian Army.

Thales Australia CEO Chris Jenkins said the announcement was a tremendous expression of confidence in the vehicle, and in the ability of Australian industry to deliver life-saving capability to the Australian Defence Force.

“Bushmaster vehicles are proving their worth every day in Afghanistan under some of the harshest conditions imaginable. The vehicle’s life-saving design, off road mobility and reliability have made it a mainstay of Australian operations”, said Chris Jenkins.

• Over 800 vehicles on order and in-service with the Australian and Netherlands Armies

• A highly mobile, ballistics, mine and improvised explosive device (IED) blast resistant Protected Mobility Vehicle.

• Fully supportive, energy absorbing seating provided for up to 10 soldiers including the driver in full air-conditioned comfort.

• 4x4 family of vehicles including patrol, command, ambulance, assault pioneer, direct fire support weapons and mortar vehicle variants and providing solutions for a wide variety of mission roles and applications.

• An additional variant: the Bushmaster Single Cab Utility to provide combat logistics support capability in a cab chassis type variant.

• Protection levels can be increased with upgrade kits and can be configured with various weapon systems, sighting and vision systems as well electronic architectures to aid to the vehicle mission performance.

• Deployed to Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq; in service with the Australian and Netherlands Armies