18 January 2001

The Australian Army in March last year ordered 370 ADI-manufactured Bushmaster 4 x 4 vehicles to meet its operational requirement for an Infantry Mobility Vehicle (IMV). Pre-production vehicles were completed late last year and full production will run from 2001.

The Bushmaster IMV will transport troops and equipment over long distances; it is not a combat vehicle. To reduce life-cycle costs, the Bushmaster uses proven and in-production subsystems where possible.

A 7.62mm machine gun can be mounted on the roof and the baseline steel armour provides protection from small arms fire and mines. If required, a higher level of armour protection is available.

Standard equipment includes power steering, a central tyre-inflation system, a spare wheel, individual protected crew seats, a split air-conditioning system, a water-storage tank and a winch that can be used to the front or rear of the vehicle. Large calibre weapons can be fitted such as a 12.7mm machine gun or 40mm grenade launcher.

Specifications

Crew: 2 + 8

Configuration: 4 x 4

Armament: 1x7.62mm machine gun

Combat weight: 15,000kg

Power-to-weight ratio: 22hp/t

Power pack: Caterpillar 3126 ATAAC six-cylinder diesel developing 300hp coupled to a ZF 7HP500 fully automatic transmission

Length: 7.02m

Width: 2.50m

Height: 2.65m

Max speed: 120km/h

Range: 1,000km

Airportable: C-130 Hercules

Status

Entering production for Australian Army (352) and Air Force (18).

Variants

In addition to the troop carrier there are at least five other variants at the design stage: ambulance, command, mortar, direct-fire weapons and engineer/fault pioneer.

Manufacturer

ADI Ltd, Bendingo, Australia

ADI-manufactured Bushmaster 4 x 4 vehicle (Source: ADI)