Australia is set to deploy surveillance aircraft to Germany to guide and protect an external support hub for Ukraine. Australia also agreed to export more than 100 Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles (CRV), manufactured at Rheinmetall Defence Australia’s plant,back to Germany.
by RoninSolutions
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As a background ,l spent just over 18 months of my 6 Combat Deployments as part of the USA’s contribution to the Embedded Training Teams (ETTs) in Afghanistan & Iraq. I served along side members from nearly all the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) & became good friends with many.
Below is what buddies from the Australian military (some still serving )are reporting on this deal ,which has been spoken of since the start of the month ,but details not public until this announcement .
Unconfirmed reports that this ‘Cost Plus’ deal to send 100 Boxer CRV’s exported back, mean Germany plans to send a large number of Armored vehicles to Ukraine from their old fleet .
Deal was done in part due to Australia’s inability to send the Ukraine the number of Bushmaster requested or the Hawkei vehicles due to their ongoing electrical & brake problems that means the Australian Military were forced to ban the vehicles from civilian roads and slap them with a fleet-wide 40km/h speed limit,it is also reported another electrical component fault has been found under harsh off road driving that affects the vehicles reliability .
Australia also has just done a Defence Strategic Review (DSR) that cut their purchase of new Armored Vehicles (AV) from a planned 450 AV’s to just 129,meaning their forces will have to make do with older AV’s (like Bushmasters & Hawkei’s when the problems are solved ) for years to come ,thus limiting the numbers available to donate for Ukraine etc .
So this ‘Ring’ deal is seen as a way they can still contribute to Ukraine by enabling Germany to free up AV’s from their older AV fleet .
This is a large commitment by Australia as it will need over 100 personal to be based in EU & also takes this asset away from their own region .
I’m so surprised from the begining how Australia (and New Zealand) participate in defense of Ukraine.
Still hoping they will sell the Ukrainians those F-18s…