Defence orders Thales to find Hawkei brake fix by deadline

It has asked manufacturer Thales to deliver a permanent solution to the long-running saga, Major General Andrew Bottrell has told a Senate Estimates hearing.

"We are obviously using every commercial lever that we have to be able to get Thales to deliver against the contracted requirement," he said.

The deadline for a fix is a new twist in Thales's decades-long quest to build and rollout 1100 replacements for an ageing fleet of army Land Rovers.

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Hawkeis are built to withstand bomb-blasts and are sisters of the larger Bushmasters winning so many plaudits in the defence of Ukraine against Russian invaders.

Defence grounded its fleet mid-rollout to troops after Thales discovered a problem with one Hawkei's ABS brake system during routine quality tests in 2022.

Thales has found a temporary fix, Major General Bottrell said.

"Essentially, what we've had to do is to get Thales, with their German ABS manufacturer, to replace the ABS modulator on every vehicle," he said.

The temporary fix can be guaranteed for 10 months at a time and is now robust enough to allow Hawkeis to operate without any restrictions, Major General Bottrell said.

That includes in off-road environments of the kind where the braking problem was discovered.

Major General Bottrell told senators Defence was keeping a close eye on a working group's analysis of Hawkei safety systems.

"We have carved out a sample fleet of 125 vehicles, as a representative fleet, so that we can use that to test and check, to make sure that the rest of the fleet remains safe for our people to use," he said.

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"That's based on engineering analysis."

Defence could restrict Hawkeis' use again if engineers uncover any new brake issues, Major General Bottrell said.

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