Photo: Provided by Hanwha Defence Australia

Hanwha Defence Australia’s training team recently conducted Redback IFV driver training in South Korea, marking a significant step in skill development and knowledge transfer. This initiative took place at Hanwha Aerospace Land Systems Business Group’s training area, showcasing ongoing collaboration between the two countries.

During the training, instructors received comprehensive education covering basic operator and maintenance tasks for the Redback IFV. Practical driver training sessions were held on HAS’ Driver Circuit, emphasizing the mastery of vehicle control, maintenance, and performance understanding in combat scenarios.

Phil Whitehead, the training manager at HDA, expressed satisfaction with the outcomes, noting, “We successfully met all objectives outlined during the training, thanks to the invaluable support from our counterparts at HAS.” He emphasized that this activity laid a strong foundation of platform knowledge for the team, facilitating future instructor development endeavours.

The Redback IFV program is set to produce 129 vehicles in Australia, with deliveries scheduled to commence in 2027 and conclude by 2028. Additionally, eight prototype vehicles will be manufactured in both South Korea and Australia as the program progresses. The contract encompasses the development and delivery of training and support system components, extending until final acceptance in 2029, with initial support provisions for the first five years post-delivery.

Jae-il Son, president and CEO of Hanwha Aerospace, highlighted the significance of this contract, stating, “The Redback IFV contract underscores our commitment to delivering cutting-edge capabilities. It further solidifies Hanwha’s presence in Australia alongside other defence projects like the AS9 and AS10 Huntsman vehicles.”

The collaboration between Australia and South Korea continues to strengthen, with opportunities for further growth on the horizon. Manufacturing all 129 vehicles at the Hanwha Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence (H-ACE) facility in Geelong is expected to bolster high-tech vehicle manufacturing in the region and provide a potential export platform for Australian firms.

With China and India gridlocked over their border disputes, a peaceful resolution isn’t in sight. In fact, both nations are bolstering their military presence, which can easily spill over into an all-out war. If these nuclear superpowers clash, the military strength of both nations will decide the extent of the conflict. So, which nation has a stronger army: China or India? Check out today’s epic new video to find out which country holds an edge in military and army advantage.

Photo: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

Since 2006, Hamas has exercised control over the governance of the State of Palestine, particularly in Gaza City, which stands as the largest city within the Gaza Strip. For a comprehensive understanding of Hamas’ fundamental objectives and principles, you may find it helpful to watch the concluding segment of the provided video.

RTX’s Raytheon has combined two of its advanced technologies, the KuRFS radar and the Coyote effector, into a single system called LIDS. This system, which stands for Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, is the latest advancement in defending against unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

Here’s what this means in simpler terms: imagine you have two powerful tools – one that helps you detect threats in all directions and another that helps you take out those threats. Raytheon has now put these tools together into one system called LIDS, making it even more effective in dealing with different kinds of drone threats.

They’ve also added some important parts from other companies like Northrop Grumman and Syracuse Research Corporation, which makes the whole system even better at protecting against drone attacks.

Richard Marles and Pat Conroy are currently under intense scrutiny for their perceived mishandling of Australia’s defence affairs, with The Australian’s Foreign Editor, Greg Sheridan, characterizing their stewardship as an “absolute debacle.” Sheridan contends that both Marles, serving as Defence Minister, and Conroy, as Defence Industry Minister, bear responsibility for the current state of affairs.

In a recent discussion with Sky News host Andrew Bolt, Sheridan delved into the contentious issues plaguing the relationship between the defence department and the government. He highlighted the fundamental grievances from both sides, illustrating a deep-seated rift.

According to Sheridan, the defence establishment holds Marles accountable for failing to secure additional funding, leaving them without the resources necessary to fulfill their expanding array of responsibilities. Conversely, Marles believes the defence establishment is out of touch with the evolving strategic landscape, clinging to outdated programs and disregarding the findings of the Defence Strategic Review.

This discord has created a stalemate, with neither party effectively advancing the interests of the Australian Defence Force. Sheridan concludes that the current trajectory falls short of establishing a robust and autonomous military force capable of wielding significant strategic influence or serving as a credible deterrent.

We have received advice of the death on Saturday 10 February 2024 of Adrian Parry.

Adrian was involved in a vehicle accident north of Armidale, NSW. Adrian was appointed an officer upon entry to the Royal Military College in January 2010 and was allocated to the Regiment upon graduation in June 2011. He had postings to 1st Regiment, 53rd Battery, and 4th Regiment before transferring to the Army Reserve and ultimately retiring in 2020. He also had a short corps transfer to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps in 2015.

Further details will be advised as they come to hand.

RIP Adrian Parry

Peter Bruce, OAM
Obituary Resource Officer
RAAHC
[email protected]

The Federal Court this week exposed a scandal – how government-funded lawyers appeared to help invent Aboriginal “traditions” to fight a massive gas project.

Justice Natalie Charlesworth’s findings are so damning that I believe the Albanese government must now cancel its funding of the Environmental Defenders Office.

The EDO last year got the court to delay the $5.8bn Santos gas project in the seas north of Darwin by helping three Tiwi Islanders who claimed an underwater pipeline from the project to Darwin would anger the rainbow serpent and a Crocodile Man who were in that part of the sea.

They also claimed the pipeline would disturb graves and sacred sites of Aborigines who lived there more than 20,000 years ago, when the seas were 120m lower and the seabed there was land.

It was mad enough to have this project delayed at a cost of $1m a day because of a non-existent rainbow serpent and a man-turned-crocodile.

Wilder was the claim – presented by the EDO lawyers – that Tiwi Islanders today actually knew the sacred sites of land that was drowned thousands of years ago, through oral traditions passed on over more than 600 generations.

As Justice Charlesworth said on Monday, in lifting the ban on the project: “It is implausible that an ancient oral tradition could yield such detailed information”.

It’s even stranger when the supposed gravesite was drawn on a map of the now-drowned area by a single Tiwi Islander, Marie Munkara, and was not known by the 23 Islanders who gave evidence in court.

That wasn’t the only suspicious thing about this amazing map.

Last June, EDO lawyers held – and filmed – a meeting for eight Aborigines against the project, and introduced them to marine geoscientist Mick O’Leary, an associate professor at the University of Western Australia.

O’Leary had with him a computer-generated map of the area as it supposedly was before the seas covered it and told the Aborigines to use their oral traditions and draw where the sacred sites were 20,000 years ago.

He claimed he’d helped stop a Woodside project this way, using ancient memories preserved in song to identify a sacred site.

Well, said one of the Aborigines, impressed: “We gotta do this.”

In fact, O’Leary later confessed in court he hadn’t used any such map against Woodside. The judge gave him a whack: “Dr O’Leary … did lie to the Tiwi Islanders, and I find that he did so because he wanted his ‘cultural mapping’ exercise to be used in a way that would stop the pipeline.”

She also found his map, with “a stunning waterfall in a luscious green landscape”, could not “on any reasonable measure be said to correctly represent the pre-inundation landscape”.

But Aborigines at the meeting had got the idea. Two women described how the rainbow serpent and Crocodile Man would have swum around the Tiwi Islands, or from a local cape, not realising the islands and their cape didn’t exist then, since they were part of the mainland. Neither O’Leary nor the EDO lawyer corrected them.

Yet no one at that meeting identified any grave sites. They were added to the map later by Marie Munkara, in circumstances not filmed or explained. Munkara didn’t give evidence, and no Aboriginal witness said she had cultural authority.

Again, Charlesworth wasn’t impressed: “The court cannot be satisfied about the integrity of any process by which Marie Munkara came to put her own marks there”.

It got worse. Alina Leikin, an EDO lawyer, then stepped up to the map.

“That’s where the sea starts,” Leikin said, and drew a line to a spot on the map to what the EDO later called “the sacred freshwater source”.

The judge was appalled: “That video … depicts what could only be described as the EDO lawyer drawing on the map in a way that could not on any reasonable view truthfully reflect what the Tiwi informant had said”.

She said drawing up this crucial map of sacred sites and graves involved “confection” or “construction” – in other words, fakery. The map was worthless.

Charlesworth also accused the EDO and an anthropologist hired for the case of “a form of subtle coaching” of some witnesses to get them to tell “their stories in a way that propelled their traditions into the sea and into the vicinity of the pipeline”.

Why is the Albanese government funding an activist group of lawyers who used a dodgy map, coached witnesses and far-fetched traditions to stop massive resources projects this country badly needs?

Women have long played a significant role in Australian military service, from serving as nurses in the Boer War, to the formation of the women’s auxiliary forces during the Second World War and their current roles on the front lines.

The HERstory: Remembering Australia’s Military Women exhibition is artist Carla Edwards’ personal thank you to the women who have served in the Australian Defence Force. The exhibition at the Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park features 24 women from New South Wales whose military service spans from 1942 up to the present day.

The women served, in the Air Force, Army and Navy as well as the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service, Australian Women’s Army Service, Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force, Women’s Royal Australian Air Force, Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps and the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service.

Read their personal stories of service through the decades

Carla started this project in 2022 with a request to photograph seven ex-service women on the NSW Central Coast. The overwhelmingly positive response to this initiative prompted Carla to broaden the reach. Fourteen months later, Carla has now driven 20,000 kilometres and interviewed and photographed 93 women across five states and one territory.

The exhibition is located in the Memorial’s Auditorium on Lower Ground level. The Memorial is open every day, 9 am to 5 pm. Please note that access to the exhibition is dependent on the Auditorium’s availability, so you are to call the Memorial in advance on (02) 8262 2900.

The exhibition closes on 1 April; entry is free. Find out more on the Memorial’s website