Australia Plans to Upgrade M1A1 Abrams MBT

17 Januari 2018

M1A1 Abrams Battle Tank from the 1st Armoured Regiment (photo : Aus DoD)

Billion-dollar LAND projects open for business

Work to provide the Army with an upgraded Main Battle Tank capability and a bridging and breaching capability is getting underway, with the combined projects worth up to $2.5 billion.

Defence's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) is holding a consultation day for industry for the LAND 907 Phase 2 and LAND 8160 Phase 1 projects next month.

Under the LAND 907 Phase 1 project, Defence acquired 59 M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management (AIM) Situational Awareness (SA) Abrams tanks, 13 M88 Hercules Armoured Recovery Vehicles, and training and support systems including simulators, special tools, test equipment, spares and ammunition. 

The LAND 907 Phase 2 project, budgeted for $750 million to $1 billion, will look at providing the Australian Army with an upgraded Main Battle Tank (MBT) capability, with the M1A1 to be upgraded to a M1A2 variant and M88A2 to be upgraded to an M88A3 variant. 

Under the LAND 8160 Phase 1 project, Defence is seeking to acquire and armoured engineering system for the Army to provide and under armour obstacle breaching and bridging capability to support mounted forces. The capability will be based on a M1 tank chassis and may be delivered by three variants: an Armoured Breacher Vehicle, an Armoured Bridge Launcher and an Armoured Engineering Vehicle (AEV). 

The breacher vehicle's main role will be to mechanically and explosively breach minefields and clear obstacles, while the armour bridge launcher will be able to cross wet or dry gaps and allow for forward movement in the battlefield. An AEV typically features a large dozer blade or mine ploughs, a large calibre demolition cannon, augers, winches, excavator arms and cranes or lifting booms.

The project has been budgeted for $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

This industry day will be held at Level 1, CQ Functions Centre, 113-123 Queen St, Melbourne on Wednesday, 21 February 2018, with one-on-one sessions on the Wednesday and running until Friday, 23 February 2018. Registration for the events can be made through CASG.

(Defence Connect)