South Korean Hanhwa Defense ships prototype of Redback armoured vehicle to Australia as part of the project to purchase armoured vehicles.
Hanhwa Defense Co., a South Korean defense industry company, stated that the company would deliver a developed armoured vehicle’s prototype to Australia as part of the tender amounting to $4.6 Billion.
According to the company, three prototypes of the new model, called “Readback,” will be shipped to Australia. Two of them will arrive in Melbourne late August, departing from the Pyeongtaek Port, west coast.
The company announced that the rest of the prototypes would also arrive in Australia. The Redback is one of two candidates on the shortlist for the country’s Land 400 Phase 3 project to introduce some 400 new tracked armored vehicles. Hanwha signed a $50 million risk-mitigation activity (RMA) contract with Australia in October to provide three prototype vehicles for tests and evaluations.
The other candidate is Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence. Australia will decide whether to make a final offer on the new vehicles by late 2022, after testing them from November till the end of 2022. The 40-ton Redback is capable of carrying 11 people, including three crew members and eight-foot soldiers, with a maximum speed of 65 kilometers per hour. The company announced that it reduced the total weight of the vehicle compared to other armored vehicles and focused on its protection against land mines and bomb attacks.
Hanhwa said, “The weight of an armored vehicle usually increases when the defense capabilities are enhanced, but we have applied cutting-edge technologies to improve the protection capabilities without increasing the weight as much.”
CEO of Hanwha Defense, Lee Sung-soo said, “We will do our best to become the final bidder by demonstrating the superiority of our land systems capability and development experience.”
