The Victorian government has announced its first round of Supply Chain Uplift Program grants to work with Hanwha Defense Australia.
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The five named companies will work with Hanwha to build self-propelled howitzers under the federal government’s LAND 8116 program, which was announced in February last year.
The grant recipients include APV Corporation to develop a specialised military seatbelt, Hannagan Solutions to develop custom textiles for protection or camouflage, Australian Precision Technologies and Redline Engineering for their cyber security systems, as well as Diamond Defence for their quality management system.
A grant of around $100,000 has reportedly been made available for restraint development program tooling and testing to produce a new Four Point Military Occupant Restraint for Land 8116 requirements.
The funding comes as an announcement was made earlier this week that a second regiment of 30 self-propelled howitzer artillery under Land 8116 Phase 2 would be cancelled, according to recommendations from the Defence Strategic Review.
The first 30 howitzers already constructed by Hanwha will not be cancelled, however, the second batch did not meet the required range or lethality, according to the report.
Their funding will instead be put towards the acquisition of additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and rapid acquisition of precision strike missiles.
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