The Australian government said it will order more than 40 Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles, locking in over 250 local jobs in Bendigo and continuing its commitment to defence and a future made in Australia. Thales Australia will build the Bushmaster vehicles in Bendigo, continuing the city’s more than two-decade history of producing the iconic vehicles that have seen service around the world. The contract, valued at more than $100 million, will support hundreds of jobs in the local economy and many more jobs across the supply chain in Victoria.
These additional Bushmasters would be used by the Army’s second long-range fires regiment, to be based at the Edinburgh Defence Precinct in South Australia as part of the 10th Fires Brigade. The vehicles will support a multi-mission phased array radar battery to provide critical command and control functions.
Since coming to office, the government has invested over $300 million in contracts for new Bendigo built bushmasters, delivering a total of more than 130 additional locally made Bushmasters for the Australian Army. The Bushmaster is the protected mobility platform of choice for nine countries, offering world-class protection and mobility for troops. The vehicle is credited with protecting and saving many Australian lives on operations, and is currently protecting the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy said: “The Bushmaster vehicles will contribute to the acceleration of a land-based long-range strike capability for the Army, demonstrating a commitment to modernising the Australian Defence Force. This contract underscores the Albanese Government’s commitment to providing the Australian Defence Force with the capabilities and equipment it needs to keep Australians safe. This additional investment will support hundreds of jobs, underscoring the Albanese government’s commitment not only to the people of the Bendigo region but to building Australia’s future.”
Jeff Connolly, CEO, Thales Australia and New Zealand, said: “This is an important investment by the Government in Australia’s industrial base that will deliver the capabilities our army needs – a battle-proven and locally-made platform that will get the job done for decades to come. What makes the Bushmaster so special is our nationally critical manufacturing facility at Bendigo and its unique blend of the engineering expertise, technical skills, and dedicated workforce who do such a great job for the nation. The Bushmaster is an excellent example of what we do at Thales Australia as a trusted partner of the Australian government, utilising local skills, design, engineering and technology to protect the interests of Australia, our allies and partners. This vote of confidence in the Bushmaster platform means Thales Australia and its workforce will have the confidence to design and deliver future upgrades as well as next-generation capabilities for the vehicle.”
“The vehicle is credited with protecting and saving many Australian lives on operations, and is currently protecting the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Can you provide further information about what theatres of war Australian defence personnel’s lives have been saved by the bushmasters?
Yes. Afghanistan.
How can you not be aware of this?
The photos I’ve seen from Ukraine has them opened up like a can of sardines. It’s a useful vehicle in limited roles but in terms of taking a kinetic hit ie 12.7 mm and above or an ATGM you’d be better off in your dad’s Torana. It’s the last vehicle you’d want be in assaulting an objective.
They’re not assault vehicles to start with.
About time.
More taxpayer funded garbage to be destroyed on the killing fields of Ukraine.
For how long do they prop up this manufacturing facility
100 million would be better spent buying more redback IFV
We now have 3 separate manufacturing plants making armoured vehicles for the Australian army each making relatively small production runs
No wonder we have defence cost blowouts
We could have had one single gov owned state of the art production manufacturing testing repair facility that licensed production for all the these programmes
Bushmaster, Hawkei, redback, huntsman
Instead we reinvent the wheel over and over again
And never have enough money to buy what the army needs
yeah I think you’re right, maybe they haven’t got the timing quite right. It would have been cheaper and more efficient to have one or 2 manufacturing plants and serialising production more.
Ie Factory builds bushmaster, when run is down, retool for another vehicle like huntsman, build out, switch to new vehicle…….it would mean building slightly more vehicles than needed to allow for attrition and surge etc. So ie if you need 30 Huntsman, instead build 33-36. That way instead of reopening the product line, pull the excess vehicle from storage and let the local military unit refurb if necessary.
Building small batches of different vehicles concurrently is very expensive.
Of the the three manufacturing plants you are Referring to, two of them, Rheinmettal Defence Australia’s Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE) and Hanwha Defence Australia’s Armoured vehicle Centre of Excellence (H-ACE) were planned and constructed with their own business cases and strategic reasoning. MILVEHCOE was built mostly to service Australia’s large fleet on MAN trucks and trailers, they are now building Boxers for Australia as well as for Germany and will likely do deep maintenance on the boxer when production ends as well. HDA is looking to diversify and expand their supply chains should things get hot on the Korean Peninsula.
Thales Australia’s Protected Vehicle Centre of Excellence is currently working up to full scale production of the Hawkei. This announcement is not so much about “propping up” this factory and more about keeping the particular production line open given potential future demand. The government might decide to procure the Strikemaster system for example and retooling the factory for new Bushmaster production could add delays and increase cost.
Furthermore their is a benefit however costly it may be to having these factories spread out across two states and three cities provides strategic depth for Australian defence vehicle manufacturing.
I can’t quite understand this decision. It seemed to me until recently we had an oversupply of these underused vehicles then came the Russian /Ukraine war when we got rid of some.
I hope they do save lives. I also hope that tax dodging Thales who gets paid billions of our tax payer’s dollars and doesn’t pay any real amount of tax gets audited as well. They pay so little tax that they created a report to try and justify it and attempt to claim that even their employees payg tax is part of THEIR contribution to tax! https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/countries-asia/australia/news/thales-australia-tax-contribution-report-november-2022.
The Reply given by
Lawrence 08/01/2025 9:58 pm
Is 100% CORRECT
Australian Politicians Fail to think about long term investment that allows good outcomes.
Every one seems obsessed with the fact that Hanwha,Thales and Rheinmetall all have their own facilities. Could it be that is because they build different things ( some similarities between an IFV & CRV admitted) and don’t really want to share with their competition. Suggesting one Facility build all is like asking Holden, Toyota and Volkswagon to share .By all means a common facility for maintaining them is a feasible concept but the more facilities building vehicles makes much better sense.
In an idea world without political pork barrelling one facility requires
Only one site
One security firm
One management structure
One test track
One work force to be kept fully employed where it’s already difficult to find the right people.
And I could go on
Instead we are paying for 3 of everything!
Basically armour vehicle production is steel fabrication
Not an overly complicated process when you have the right equipment, yes I know it more than an amour shell
A large shared production and if necessary separate final assembly lines for protect any sensitive info, but we are paying billions and not getting the value for money
It was projected that 450 IFV would cost 27 billion ! I still can’t believe the unit price that works out to!
We owned GAF which built , all types of aircraft designs from different countries including F18,s
We owned at least part owned the bushmaster design and production line
We owned Lithgow small arms factory
But we sold the lot because governments both types seem unable to run and manage them efficiently
Seems we can build subs from different countries including the same place and again a sub is a fabricated steel tube with complicated components
But I waste my breath because this horse has bolted and the Aussie army is again the loser
Warfare has evolved. What is needed is drones, aerial and submarine drones attack and surveillance, drone jamming, anti missiles and missiles including long range missiles
Australia is foolish not to muscle up and fast. It should in partnership with NZ short term.
US, Canada, Japan, UK, France… for short mid term deliveries.
There is a need for short and mid term investment and deliveries of some new equipments beyond decade long subs
The Bush Master’s are an excellent vehicle and has proven itself in Afghanistan and now in Ukraine, the Canberra war museum has a Bushmaster that if it had been any another vehicle hit by a IED no one would have survived, and the 3 man crew the driver may have had broken ankles and feet and the other 2 bashed around but all 3 survived.
Another type of vehicle you would have had 3 dead Aussie soldiers,
Just Google it up and see the damage done