PDA

View Full Version : Hawkei



carlschmid2002
8th March 2017, 09:12 AM
Mark Abernethy
In a nation where so many have a 4x4
and which has the best country in the
world to drive over, Australia was
bound to come up with a world-beating
army vehicle.
Since the 1980s, the Australian Army
has used a Land Rover Defender variant
called the Perentie, which was built
in 4x4 and 6x6 models and used Isuzu
diesel engines rather than the Land
Rover originals.
But the Australian Defence Force is
replacing its ageing Land Rovers with
two vehicles: the unprotected model is
the Mercedes-Benz G-wagon, a wellknown
general purpose runaround for
military use.
But it's the Thales Hawkei - replacing
the blast-protected, combat Land
Rover - that signifies a leap forward for
Australia's design and build capability
in defence industry.
"I was recently at the defence expo in
Abu Dhabi," Thales Australia chief
executive Chris Jenkins says. "There
was a lot of impressive hardware at
that show, but everyone was stopping
for the Hawkei."
The Hawkei is a vehicle born of hard
experience and grim reality in combat
areas such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Taking all of what was liked about the
Bushmaster, Australia's first domestically
designed and manufactured protected
land vehicle is getting rave
reviews before it is officially deployed
with the Australian Army.
It is driven by a 200kw Steyr turbo
diesel engine, through an automatic
transmission, and is a four-wheel drive
with low and high ratios. It can carry
five people and has a trailer designed to
be towed behind.
It has been built to operate in desert
heat and alpine cold and, according to
Jenkins, it is very simple to drive and
travels well on the road.
"It's large but agile."
But that is about the only similarity
to the 4x4 parked in the driveway.
For a start, the Hawkei is a 7-tonne
vehicle, making it about two-and-a-half
times the weight of a Toyota Land
Cruiser. The Hawkei is also a generator
on wheels.
With an inline starter/generator connected
to its motor, the Hawkei has
30kw of electrical power on-tap, which
it can export: it can run all the onboard
ADF electronics and mobile devices,
and can export power to run a camp
site, or mobile mechanic workshop.
Then there's the blast and ballistic
protection. While the big sister of the
Hawkei - the Thales Bushmaster -
earned its reputation against Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs) in
Afghanistan with its monocoque
V-shaped hull that deflects blasts, the
Hawkei also has other tricks. The seats
are suspended from the roof, reducing
a main cause of death in a vehicle hit by
anIED.
"In an IED blast, three things will kill
or injure the occupants of a vehicle,"
says Jenkins.
"Number one is the vertical acceleration
from the IED.
"Secondly, if the IED breaches the
vehicle, the blast pressure can crush
the occupants; and thirdly, objects in
the vehicle become projectiles and fly
into the occupants.
"So we make sure that the occupants
are not sitting on the blast, we make
sure the hull doesn't rupture with the
blast, and the interior of the Hawkei is
designed so there's no need for loose
objects."
And that is one of the reasons the generator
is now built-in: no 50 kg projectile
flying around like a wrecking ball.
Jenkins says the Australiandesigned
protected mobility vehicle,
the Bushmaster - about twice the size
of the Hawkei - had taught the designers
many lessons about protected
vehicles, including the need to perfect
the suspension, the need for top-shelf
differentials and gearboxes, the
importance of good engine management
applications and the requirement
to have an adaptable design so the
vehicle can be quickly reformatted.
"People would notice that a vehicle like
the American Humvee had many different
types of design, but they were all
added-on which adds weight and cost.
We've developed variants for the
Hawkei but we've avoided the bolt-ons
and designed the changes into the
vehicle."
The Hawkei will support a remotely
controlled weapon station (RCWS)
primarily for use with light and
medium weapons but accommodating
weapons from 5.56mm machine guns
to anti-tank missiles.
Jenkins says the Hawkei is a product
of an engineering philosophy that promotes
a continuous feedback between
the design engineers and those who
use the vehicle. They call it Integrated
Design Teams.
"We have a structured feedback system
so we are constantly hearing from
the soldiers about strengths and weaknesses
in the vehicles. It was a really
valuable exercise with the Bushmaster
and it forms a basis for designing the
Hawkei. Creating a vehicle should be
the first step but you have to improve
and innovate and we build that process
into the design."
Jenkins says the contract for the
Hawkei is valued at $1.3 billion, supplying
at least 1100 vehicles and 1000 trailers,
the first of which are produced in
the second half of 2017, with deliveries
starting in 2018.
The contract for the
Hawkei is valued at
$1.3b and deliveries
will start in

Homestar
8th March 2017, 01:06 PM
Good driving position and comfy too - he's me sitting in one last week. :)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=120289&d=1488942285

120289

carlschmid2002
8th March 2017, 02:13 PM
From my point of view the best thing about them is they can be lifted by a Chinook. You can avoid a lot of dangerous areas by flying them there.

bob10
21st June 2018, 09:10 AM
The Hawkei is slated to be the platform for the new ground to air missile defence system for the Army. That exportable power would be perfect for this. Having the operators in a protected environment makes sense.

ADF releases images of future missile-defence platform - CONTACT magazine (http://www.contactairlandandsea.com/2017/09/14/adf-releases-images-future-missile-defence-platform/)