Bushmaster an option for maritime strike capability

One of the next major defence acquisition programs to be accelerated under the recent DSR is a land-based maritime strike capability for the ADF.

The Bushmaster utility variant is perfect for NSM CDS, in terms of size and weight, to deliver a land-based maritime strike capability. Picture: Deaprtment of Defence

One of the next major defence acquisition programs to be accelerated under the recent Defence Strategic Review (DSR) is a land-based maritime strike capability for the Australian Defence Force.

Even prior to the DSR, the previous government’s Defence Force Structure Plan (DSP) had earmarked $500m towards the acquisition of a land-based maritime strike capability from 2024.

The DSR further considers the ability to hold an adversary’s surface vessels at risk at greater distances from Australia’s shores as a basic force structure design priority.

“Defence must rapidly accelerate and expand Army’s long-range fires (land-based maritime strike) programs,” the report states. “This will require the Army to re-posture key capabilities.”

In response, Defence has announced that the Land 4100 Phase 2 program, which seeks to acquire a land-based, long-range missile system for the Army, will be given priority.

“Project Land 4100 Phase 2 will deliver an integrated, mobile, deployable, land-based strike capability that is capable of engaging maritime targets at significant ranges,” a Defence spokesperson says. “Defence is in the requirement-setting phase for the project, and market research in relation to potential capability options is underway.”

There are exemplars for such a capability already in operational service around the world and even before the DSR was made public, Defence had already received briefings on two possible solutions, each of which leverages systems either already in-use with – or already being acquired for – the ADF.

In 2022, Kongsberg Defence Australia (KDAu) and Thales Australia unveiled a solution which combines the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), now being acquired for the Navy’s surface warships under Project Sea 1300, with the utility variant of Thales’ ubiquitous Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle (PMV).

Named StrikeMaster, the proposal leverages work already done with the US Marine Corps, which integrates the NSM Coastal Defence System (CDS) with an unmanned version of the US Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) under the Marines’ Navy Maritime Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) program.

Unlike NMESIS, however, KDAu and Thales are proposing a manned version of the Bushmaster, in deference to the remote operating areas of northern Australia.

“The Bushmaster utility variant is actually quite perfect for NSM CDS, in terms of size and weight,” KDAu managing director Jon Fry says. “The system is fielded, it’s proven, it’s available and it uses the same missile as Sea 1300.”

Lockheed Martin also unveiled a proposal for Land 4100 in 2022 which integrates the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launch vehicle with an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).

The Army is already acquiring HIMARS under its accelerated Land 8113 Phase 1 (Long Range Fires) program and the Royal Australian Air Force has selected the air-launched LRASM for its F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighters and, most recently, P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance and response aircraft.

Under this proposal, Lockheed Martin plans to use the same launch canister used by the Royal Australian Navy’s Mk.41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) and a booster from the standard Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC) system.

“The idea is to bring down the cost of things such as training, logistics and model support cost,” Lockheed Martin’s director of programs for its Missiles and Fire Control division James Hedding said at the product launch. “We’re working with the US government and we’re making sure the Australian government is aware of what we’re doing.”