The 7-tonne lightweight vehicle is built for rapid airmobile deployment, and is both modular and scalable, with command, reconnaissance, liaison and utility variants. A compelling choice for operations with limited point-of-entry options, the Hawkei offers operational flexibility across a wide range of mission profiles.

A mission-ready combination of survivability, mobility, payload and high levels of protection, the Hawkei features an innovative B-kit armour application that can be installed by troops on operations in less than 30 minutes, without the need for specialist tools. This straightforward and effective approach has been developed with Plasan, a recognised leader in specialised armour solutions, while Boeing Defence Australia is providing overall vehicle through life support services.

On board, visitors to the show will see an innovative Vehicle Electronic Architecture (VEA) that is the result of an extensive joint development program between Thales in France, the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Australia. This allows the vehicle to be mission systems configurable, with surveillance, communications and Battle Management System able to be displayed on a single screen and out to meet rapid re-tasking at minimal cost and effort.

The vehicle will also be displaying Thales’s SOTAS vehicle communications system, Sophie thermal imager, MBITR radios, as well as Polaris GPS. Hawkei crews will benefit from the vehicle’s Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) which uses touch screens to display vehicle performance data on engine status, systems, power management, weapons and sensors.

Chris Jenkins, Thales Australia’s CEO, said: “The Hawkei is a versatile vehicle ideally suited to meet contemporary and future operational challenges. It incorporates high levels of protection in a compact and versatile platform, and builds on our experience with the Bushmaster program and its success on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq against IEDs and small arms ammunition.”
“We have also future-proofed the Hawkei in regard to the increased use of networked technologies on operations, and this has driven our development of a supplier-agnostic VEA that can be used to integrate an array of third-party equipment. This gives users genuine choice when deciding which technologies to deploy for any given task.”

Thales Australia recently signed a contract with the Australian Department of Defence to deliver six prototypes under the LAND 121 phase 4 programme, which will acquire 1,300 new light protected vehicles to replace the current Land Rover fleet.