Varley Rafael Australia secures missile contract
24 October 22
The joint venture has been tapped to deliver its missiles for integration with Boxer CRVs and the winning IFV tender under LAND 400 Phase 3.
The Commonwealth government has contracted Varley Rafael Australia (VRA) — a joint venture between the Varley Group and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems — to deliver a tranche of Spike LR2 missile to the Australian Army.
This involves integration and acceptance testing for Army’s new Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles (CRVs) and the future fleet of infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) as part of LAND 400 Phases 2 and 3.
VRA has also been tasked with the provision of Spike LR2 mechanical and outdoor training rounds and delivery of user training and may also support the technical certification of the Spike LR2 missile.
Ben Walter, newly appointed CEO of VRA, welcomed the Commonwealth government contract.
“This is a major milestone on our proposed roadmap to establish Spike missile manufacturing capability right here in Australia,” he said.
VRA’s offering reportedly includes manufacturing of inert components and integration, rocket propulsion and warhead systems, hot integration, and associated storage requirements.
“It aims to facilitate the production and support capabilities of our industry partners and local supply chain and will result in the creation of new high-technology jobs and the upskilling of Australian personnel,” Walter said.
“In this current political environment, a local manufacturing capability would deliver the category-superior, fifth generation Spike LR2 missile into service faster than extant acquisition approaches.”
The Spike LR2 missile is billed as a fifth-generation, tactical precision strike weapon, leveraging two advanced warhead configurations:
Tandem Heart warhead, designed to enhance armour penetration by 30 per cent; and
Multipurpose blast warhead, which includes controlled fusing to bolster precision.
Australia is among 26 countries to deploy the Spike missiles and launchers, with the LR2 variant built with full commonality with legacy systems.
Source: Defence Connect