Redback vs. Lynx
The export status to Australia of Hanwha Aerospace’s Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), the Redback, is expected to be announced within a few days. When it was tendered in 2018, the project’s scale was 450 armored vehicles (approximately 16 to 24 trillion won), but due to the change of the Australian government and the reorganization of the budget, it has now been reduced to 129 vehicles with a budget of about 10 trillion won.
According to the defense industry on July 26, the Australian government plans to decide whether or not to purchase the Redback by the end of this month at the earliest. The Australian Financial Review (AFR) recently reported, “The Australian government will announce the final results of the LAND 400 Phase 3 project by the end of this month.” The announcement of the priority negotiator for the project was scheduled for the first quarter of last year, but it looks like it will be decided this year, five years after the project began.
The LAND 400 project of the Australian Ministry of Defense is a project to replace the old wheeled and tracked armored vehicles owned by Australia with new models. These armored vehicles have wheels like regular cars and are better for quickly transporting troops on paved roads and flat ground. Tracked armored vehicles move by pushing the ground with tracks and have excellent mobility in unpaved roads and wildlands.
The project was divided into three phases. The first phase was a study of project feasibility completed in 2016. The second phase, completed in 2018, was a replacement of 257 old wheeled LAV-25 armored vehicles with the ultimately adopted Germany’s Rheinmetall’s Boxer model. The Australian government then introduced a total of 211 vehicles.
The third phase is a project to introduce new tracked armored vehicles to replace the old M113AS4 model with 340 units. The initial tender was conducted in 2018, and Hanwha Aerospace’s Redback (then Hanwha Defense) and Rheinmetall’s Lynx armored vehicles became the final candidates the following year.
The Redback, named after the redback spider that lives in Australia, was developed targeting the Australian market from the beginning. It weighs 42 tons and measures 7.7 m in length, 3.64 m in width, and 3.72 m in height. Its maximum speed is 65 kph, and its cruising range is 520 km. It is equipped with a power pack (engine and transmission) mounted on the K9 self-propelled gun chassis and is equipped with a 30 mm machine gun as its main weapon.
Rheinmetall’s Lynx armored vehicle, its opposition, also has similar specifications to the Redback. The Lynx weighs 44 tons, has a maximum speed of 65-70 kph, and has a cruising range of about 500 km. Like the Redback, it can carry up to 12 people (3 crew members, 8 troops) and is armed with a machine gun. The Australian AFR quoted military sources as saying, “The Redback is the vehicle preferred by the military, but Rheinmetall’s Lynx also meets the performance requirements.”
Until last year, the domestic defense industry had strongly predicted a Redback victory. Uhm Dong-hwan, the Commissioner of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, said at the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee in August last year, “The Australian side expects the preferred negotiator to be selected in September,” and “If this happens, we judge that we can export the Redback to Australia.”
However, since Australia has reduced the scale of the project and postponed the announcement, there are worries that Korea cannot be optimistic about winning the order. A defense industry official said, “The uncertainty of the project is higher now than at the beginning.”
Hanwha Aerospace strengthened its defense cooperation by signing an export contract for the K9 self-propelled gun and others with Australia in 2021. It is currently investing 200 billion won to construct a state-of-the-art armored vehicle production facility (H-ACE) within the Avalon Airport in Geelong, Australia. And if the Redback export is successful, it is expected to use this factory.
Catherine Raper, Australian ambassador to Korea, said at the “Seeking Ways to Increase Economic and Security Cooperation between Korea and Australia” forum held at the National Assembly Member’s Office on the 20th, “The Korea-Australia self-propelled gun project is a successful model of cooperation between the two countries, and the Geelong production plant currently under construction has great value for the partnership between the two countries.” She added, “We hope that the ongoing project will proceed well and further expand the relationship between the two countries.”