Three things occurred on March 31 of significance for the development of Australia’s sovereign missile manufacturing capability. The first was the opening of Raytheon’s Joint Integration Centre at Mawson Lakes in Adelaide that will support the company’s activities for LAND 19 Phase 7B in particular. The second was the signing of a support contract for that project between Defence and Raytheon worth $111 million.
The third was the announcement by the Prime Minister of a $1 billion fund to accelerate the development of a sovereign guided weapons capability.
The Joint Integration Facility is a 6,500 square metre building that will encompass workspaces, laboratories and light manufacturing under one roof, initially to produce missile-equipped vehicles for Army’s signature ground-based air defence program. Worth an estimated $1.5 billion, this will see vehicles such as the Thales Hawkei equipped with radars from CAE and missiles in the form of AIM-120 AMRAAMs....MORE.
