The maintenance of the Royal Australian Navy’s advanced lightweight anti-submarine torpedo will continue in Western Australia after the government awarded the $20 million contract to Thales Australia.
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the contract to sustain the MU90 Light Weight Torpedo reflected the Government’s continued support for Australia’s defence industry. “This is yet another demonstration of the Morrison Government’s commitment to building our sovereign defence capability,” Price said. “I am proud that Thales Australia has been awarded this contract to continue with the in-country, in-service support provided at its Rockingham facility in WA. Thales Australia is among many local defence businesses providing robust, secure domestic supply chains and high-tech jobs for working Australians. Thales is to be congratulated for again demonstrating the necessary skills and ability to provide this vital technical support. The Commonwealth assessed high quality, value-for-money sustainment options and found the best solution right here on home soil.”
The Royal Australian Navy has used the MU90 Light Weight Torpedo since 2013, and Thales has held the support contract since that time.
Thales Australia said it welcomed the announcement by Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price to award a $20 million contract to maintain the Royal Australian Navy’s MU90 Light Weight torpedo, demonstrating Thales’s established capability in Australia to sustain guided munitions and weapons systems. The MU90 has been successfully supported by Thales Australia’s facility in Rockingham, Western Australia, since it entered into service with the Navy in 2013. The renewal of the in-service support contract for 3 years will be delivered utilising 100 percent Australian Industry Capability (AIC), and will directly support jobs with Thales in Western Australia, and more in Thales’s local WA supply chain. Over the past decade, Thales has built a sovereign industrial capability in WA to ensure Australia has the capability to fully support the MU90 torpedo. In addition to the 140 people employed directly by Thales in Western Australia, a further 110 people are employed by Thales’s WA suppliers, according to recent analysis by Accenture. In 2020, Thales spent $23 million with 86 West Australian suppliers, almost three-quarters of them SMEs.
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