Hong Kong Seized Singapore's Terrex Armoured Infantry Fighting vehicle

Hong Kong customs officials confiscated nine Terrex armoured infantry fighting vehicles during a routine inspection. The military were being shipped from Taiwan to Singapore. Investigation by Hong Kong is on-going.

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Land 400 Phase 2 Down Select

Australia has down selected BAE Systems and Rheinmetall as potential suppliers of the CRV (Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle) under the Land 400 Phase 2 programme. The two companies will be conducting 12 months of risk mitigation activities funded by the Defence Materiel Organisation. A down select is expected by the end of 2017 with the delivery of the first vehicles to the training units by May 2020. The first cavalry unit is expected to receive their vehicles by July 2021 and all deliveries should be completed by July 2024.

BAE Systems is competing with a variant of the Finnish Patria AMV (Armoured Modular Vehicle). The AMV was also selected for service with Croatia, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden and UAE,

The Rheinmetall's offering is the Boxer, which is in service with the German and Dutch Armies. Rheinmetall in a joint venture with MAN Truck & Bus AG is currently delivering 2536 vehicles (MAN Hx) and 3000 associated specialist modules to ADF under Project Land 121 Phase 3B (Overlander). They won the US$1.45 billion contract in 2013 over the competing vehicles Thlales Australia's Bushmaster Utility and Mercedes Benz Australia/ Pacific's Actros and Zetros vehicles.

The unsuccessful competing vehicles are the Sentinel II (a variant of the ST Kinetic Terrex) and an updated version of the LAV 6.0.

German Army Boxers at Camp Marmal in Afghanistan, 2011. By ISAF Headquarters Public Affairs Office  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16209306

Defense Update

US Marine MPC/ ACV Programme Update

The United States has shortlisted two 8x8 armoured vehicles for the next and final phase of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) 1.1 programme.  The shortlisted vehicles are based on the IVECO SuperAV or AV-8 and the ST Kinetics Terrex. The AV-8 is offered by a consortium conprising of British Aerospace Systems (BAE Systems) and IVECO.  The consortium led by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) is building a vehicle based on ST Kinetics’ TERREX. Both consortiums have each been awarded a US$100m contract under the Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development (EMD) phase of the programme. This phase will last two years after which a contract may be awarded for the production of an initial batch of 200 vehicles.



Terrex at Home in the Surf. Image from SAIC Facebook.

The AV-8 has internal capacity for 13 embarked Marines plus a crew of three thus meeting the objective requirement for payload. It is powered by a 6-cylinder, 700HP power pack, which is a significant power increase over the Marine's current Assault Amphibious Vehicle.

The TERREX is in service with the Singapore Army since 2010. The updated TERREX 2 is specially designed for littoral missions. It has a "shark-nose" hydrodynamic hull that keeps the vehicle's forward section above water as it is propelled through surfs at speed of more than 6 knots; in sea state of up to Sea State 4 (where waves reach up to 2.5 metres). The V-shaped bottom provides stability in the water as well as enhanced mine protection. The TERREX is powered by a 600HP power pack and has capacity for 2 crew and 12 Marines.

BAE

The Straits Times

US Marines Corp

Singapore Military's Secret Edge

Singapore credits its engineers and scientists with enhancing its military capabilities. It even called its 5000 strong defence technology community, its secret edge weapon.

There are some interesting nuggets of information gleaned from this reference article from the magazine, Cyberpioneer.  For example, the Littoral Mission Vessel has a system that automated the watch duty for its crew. No more manual scanning of the surrounding sea. The all-round electro-optical surveillance system allows the ship crew to monitor the sea on screen.


The LMV (Littoral Mission Vessel). Designed for various missions in the congested waters of the world's busiest straits.

A similar capability on the Terrex 8x8 armoured infantry fighting vehicle allows it to be driven totally by camera. The Terrex also has an advance hostile fire detector that automatically prioritise the threat. In addition to the location of the threat, the acoustic system is smart enough to differentiate between the different calibre of incoming fire.


Acoustic system mounted on left rear position of Terrex

Cyberpioneer

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