Best of the week — the five most popular stories among @AuManufacturing’s readers

Curious about what people were most interested in during the week just finished? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading.

NIOA WINS CONTRACT FOR NEXT GENERATION ARMY WEAPONS

The Federal Government has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with Queensland company NIOA to start acquiring and supplying the next generation of small arms for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The contract is part of a $500 million plus commitment to provide Australia’s soldiers, sailors and aviators with enhanced lethality weapon systems.

The Head Land Systems, Major General Andrew Bottrell announced the Lethality System Project (LAND 159) Tranche 1 contract in the lead-up to the Land Forces 2022 Exposition in Brisbane.

LAND FORCES 2022 – INTRODUCING OUR NEW EDITORIAL SERIES

As delegates gathered in Brisbane last week for Land forces 2022, the top of mind issue for Defence and defence industry is the conflict in Ukraine, and its lessons for the future of the Australian Defence Force.

With an apparently well armed Army, and massive firepower at its disposal, Russia has been unable to make headway against a much smaller force from one of the poorest countries in Europe due to deficiencies in equipment, training, leadership, logistics, tactics and morale.

In an interview with @AuManufacturing, published here, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy signaled that one result would be a step change in the pace of defence procurement, which will draw on the defence strategic review now underway.

STRIKEMASTER TAKES BUSHMASTER TO THE MARITIME DOMAIN

Thales Australia and Kongsberg Defence Australia launched the StrikeMaster land-based maritime strike system as part of its offerings at Land Forces 2022 conference.

The StrikeMaster combines Thales Australia’s familiar armoured single-cab Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s (KDA) Naval Strike Missile (NSM) Coastal Defence System .

According to Thales the marriage of the two provides the Australian Defence Force with a potent, disruptive and proven land-based maritime deterrent.

LAND FORCES 2022 – DEFENCE INDUSTRY POLICY UNDER PAT CONROY, INTERVIEW

On the day of the launch of @AuManufacturing‘s special editorial series, Land Forces 2022, we began with a look at the policies of the new federal government guiding Defence’s relationship with industry.

In his first major interview, Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for international development & the Pacific, spoke to Peter Roberts.

LAND FORCES 2022 – PRIME, SME COLLABORATION DRIVES COMPOSITES FOR SMALL ARMS MANUFACTURE

The statistics show that Australian manufacturers and business leaders are among the worst in the developed world at collaborating with each other and with outside organisations and public sector researchers.

But that is changing in defence industry with SMEs working with others and defence prime contractors to deliver innovative products to the Army, including at the century-old Lithgow Arms works located inside a deceptively old-looking complex of buildings at Lithgow, NSW (pictured).

For manufacturing technologies manager Gabriel Gudas, the catalyst to collaboration came when Thales embarked on a burst of product and company innovation and expansion at Lithgow, with Gudas himself charged with developing lighter versions of the company’s LA105 Woomera sporting rifle.

Picture credit: Picture: Zu Bladeworx