Update: Australia to procure Bushmasters to provide C2 support for HIMARS

The Australian Defence Force has taken delivery of more than 1,000 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles. (Commonwealth of Australia)

The Australian Department of Defence (DoD) has signed a AUD45 million (USD30.5 million) contract with Thales Australia to build 15 additional Bushmaster 4×4 protected mobility vehicles (PMVs) for the Australian Army.

The DoD said the vehicles – to be built at Thales Australia's facility in Bendigo, Victoria – will be fitted with command-and-control (C2) systems to support the Australian Army's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) long-range fires regiment. Ordered from the US, Australia's HIMARS capability is scheduled to be delivered to the Australian Army from 2025.

A DoD spokesperson told Janes that the additional 15 Bushmasters will be delivered to the Australian Army in 2026. “The Bushmasters' command-and-control variants will be integrated with the in-service command-and-control battle management systems and the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), along with in-service radios; similar to those used to support the [BAE Systems] M777 lightweight towed howitzer and [Hanwha] AS9 self-propelled howitzer capabilities,” the spokesperson added.

Australia has ordered two HIMARS batches from the US government. In May 2022 the US announced that Australia had ordered 20 systems through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract for about USD385 million. In August 2023 the US announced a second batch of 22 HIMARSs for USD975 million, also through FMS.

Australia's Defence Strategic Review (DSR) – issued in April 2023 – recommended that the DoD accelerate the procurement of HIMARS. The DSR also recommended procuring additional HIMARS. The project is also scoped to procure the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which is expected to have a maximum range beyond 500 km, the DoD said.

Deliveries of both on-order batches are scheduled to be completed by 2027.