Australia — Bushmaster protection upgrade in Afghanistan complete

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced that Bush­mas­ter vehi­cles in Afghanistan have been upgrad­ed to pro­vide sol­diers with bet­ter pro­tec­tion against Impro­vised Explo­sive Devices (IEDs).

The upgrade was com­plet­ed in Afghanistan in August 2011. 

Upgrades to the vehi­cles include the instal­la­tion of new seat­ing and floor­ing in the cab­in to pro­vide addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion for com­man­ders, dri­vers and the troops being transported. 

“The upgrades will help pro­tect troops trav­el­ling in the vehi­cle by absorb­ing more of the blast impact,” Mr Clare said. 

“Bush­mas­ters are a great Aus­tralian suc­cess sto­ry. They are cre­at­ing jobs in Aus­tralia and sav­ing lives in Afghanistan. 

“We are con­stant­ly look­ing for ways to make them even safer. 

“The threat of road­side bombs is always present and always chang­ing. That’s why we have to be always work­ing to improve the pro­tec­tion we give our troops in Afghanistan.” 

Expert Defence and indus­try engi­neers from Thales and Stratos Seat­ing devel­oped the upgrades based on data from dam­aged Bush­mas­ter vehi­cles hit by impro­vised explo­sive devices in Afghanistan and blast tri­als con­duct­ed in Australia. 

In May the Gov­ern­ment also announced that it would pur­chase an addi­tion­al 101 Bush­mas­ters to sup­port cur­rent and future Aus­tralian operations. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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