Hawkei armoured cars bound for Ukraine war in Australian support deal

Australia is set to give Ukraine the missile-capable, four-wheel-drive armoured cars that it has been requesting for months – the Hawkei – as the centrepiece of a forthcoming support package.

Although a formal commitment has yet to be sealed, there has been serious progress informally and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Herald and The Age the vehicles were number one on his list of “demands” from Australia.

Ukraine wants Australian-made Hawkei four-wheel drives for its fight against Russia.

He described the Australian-made vehicles as “very, very famous armed vehicles with air defence systems” in an interview in Singapore after meeting his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, at the weekend.

The Hawkei is a seven-tonne armoured car designed to be fitted with the same Norwegian-American air defence system that protects the White House.

Marles declined to comment specifically on the Hawkei but said the Ukrainians “have given us a list; we had a pretty detailed conversation”. The new support package would be unveiled “soon”, he said.

The announcement is expected by the time Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travels to a NATO summit in Lithuania next month.

People with knowledge of the talks but not authorised to speak publicly said an understanding had been reached but the deal was yet to be processed through Canberra’s formal systems.

Australian-made Bushmasters have been on the front lines from early in the Ukraine war.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he was ready to launch the country’s much-anticipated counteroffensive but worried that Russia had air superiority on the front lines.

A lack of protection from Russian air power meant “a large number of soldiers will die” in the counteroffensive, he told the Wall Street Journal in a weekend interview. Ukraine would have liked to have more Western-supplied weapons for the coming campaign, he said. “We would like to have certain things, but we can’t wait for months.”

Reznikov, Zelensky’s defence minister, told the Herald and The Age in an interview in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue: “For us, air defence systems is priority number one. Different levels, short range, middle range, etc. That’s why we are wondering for the Hawkei. We will be happy to get it.”

Reznikov was full of praise for the performance of the Bushmaster armoured troop carriers supplied by Australia, which he said had been critical in Ukraine’s ability to recover the city of Kharkiv from Russian forces.

“It was surprise for Russians. Honestly, it was surprise for me, also.”

Among Ukraine’s other requests, Reznikov said he had asked that Australia join the so-called “birds coalition” to support its use of F-16 fighter jets that NATO nations are supplying. He said Ukraine needed training for its pilots as well as technicians and sustainment support. He had requested Australian personnel and cash.

Australia’s army has 1100 Hawkeis, recently delivered or in the process of being delivered. Some already are deployed in South Australia and trialling the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAM), said retired Australian Army major general Mick Ryan.

“The NASAM comes with a whole suite of very sophisticated sensors and missiles,” Ryan said. “It’s not just a missile system – it has a pretty powerful radar that over 100 kilometres could be quite useful.”

The Australian Army has raised serial objections to supplying the Hawkei. It first said its brakes were faulty. Next it said that so many spare parts would need to be supplied to Ukraine that the whole fleet would be unusable.

Liberal senator David Van, the chair of the parliamentary Friends of Ukraine group, said it was “complete bollocks” that the vehicles could not be sent to Ukraine.

“There are 450 Hawkeis sitting in the Thales compound in Bendigo. Why won’t we send them?”

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has said that it does not care about any braking problems.

Ryan said of the situation: “I think it’s more Canberra risk aversion – Defence doesn’t want to be embarrassed if there’s a problem with the brakes. The Hawkei’s already in use in Adelaide. If it’s good enough for the Australians it’d be good enough for the Ukrainians.”

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has said that the Hawkei was its troops’ “new crush”.

The vehicle takes its name from a species of death adder which, in turn, was named in honour of former prime minister Bob Hawke.

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