The government has signed a A$370 million contract with Saab Australia to deliver deployable health equipment for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The first five-years of the contract will see Saab Australia enhance the ADF’s clinical health care response capability by delivering more than 500 deployable health modules. The modules will provide functions enabling clinical treatment and care up to hospitalisation, and incorporate critical support infrastructure such as shelters, internal power reticulation and waste management.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the government is committed to ensuring Australian soldiers have the equipment and facilities required to provide best-practice clinical health care in operational environments. “The project will deliver the most comprehensive deployable health transformation in the ADF’s history, and will align the ADF deployable health capabilities with cutting-edge international military health capabilities,” Reynolds said. “Each of the modules will provide a different health function, such as pathology, intensive care, treatment and holding, resuscitation, surgery, primary dental care, imaging, and environmental health. The performance-based support contract with Saab Australia will increase efficiency, reduce overheads, and most importantly, provide the ADF with flexibility to refresh health technology to meet evolving operational requirements, including domestic and regional humanitarian deployments.”

Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the contract will deliver more local jobs and opportunities for Australian businesses, with around A$240 million of the contract value to be spent in Australia. “Saab Australia will establish a Deployable Health Capability Support Centre in south-east Queensland, creating 50 new full-time positions throughout its supply chain,” Price said. “Saab Australia will also grow its presence in Australia by relocating its global Deployable Health System Design and Development Centre from Europe to Australia. This presents new opportunities for Australian businesses to benefit from international technology transfer and improve our access to global marketplaces.”
Saab said it has partnered with Aspen Medical, Philips Healthcare Australia & NZ, Broadspectrum and Marshall Land Systems to deliver the medical modules. “Saab is a strategic and long-term partner for Australian Defence and as a result of this contract, we will relocate our global deployable health centre of excellence from Sweden to Australia,” says Andy Keough, managing director at Saab Australia.
The new Defence Health Capability Support Centre site is under evaluation and will be announced by the end of 2020.