The Bushmaster From concept to combat Brendan Nicholson The Bushmaster ASPI case studies in defence projects ASPI case studies in defence projects is a series dedicated to telling the ‘warts and all’ stories of major undertakings in Australian defence procurement and project management. The ‘dates and dollars’ of defence projects are available in reporting from the Department of Defence and the Australian National Audit Office, so this series explores the less quantified but nonetheless crucial aspects of project management—the organisational, human and technological challenges that occur along the way. ASPI hopes that future project managers will be able to turn to this series to see how their predecessors dealt with the problems they faced, and be able to see how outcomes—good or bad—were shaped by events along the way. Other monographs in this series Rearming the Anzacs by Robert Macklin Air warfare destroyer: The game-changer by Robert Macklin Sticking to our guns: A troubled past produces a superb weapon by Chris Masters The Bushmaster The Bushmaster From concept to combat From concept to combat Brendan Nicholson About ASPI ASPI’s aim is to promote Australia’s security by contributing fresh ideas to strategic decision-making, and by helping to inform public discussion of strategic and defence issues. ASPI was established, and is partially funded, by the Australian Government as an independent, non-partisan policy institute. It is incorporated as a company, and is governed by a Council with broad membership. ASPI’s core values are collegiality, originality & innovation, quality & excellence and independence. ASPI’s publications—including this study—are not intended in any way to express or reflect the views of the Australian Government. The opinions and recommendations in this study are published by ASPI to promote public debate and understanding of strategic and defence issues. They reflect the personal views of the author(s) and should not be seen as representing the formal position of ASPI on any particular issue. Important disclaimer This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in relation to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering any form of professional or other advice or services. No person should rely on the contents of this publication without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional. © The Australian Strategic Policy Institute Limited 2019 This publication is subject to copyright. 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First published December 2019 Published in Australia by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ASPI Level 2 40 Macquarie Street Barton ACT 2600 Australia Tel + 61 2 6270 5100 Fax + 61 2 6273 9566 Email [email protected] www.aspi.org.au www.aspistrategist.org.au Facebook.com/ASPI.org @ASPI_org ISBN 978-1-925229-57-8 (print) ISBN 978-1-925229-58-5 (online pdf) Cover image: Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles from 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment travel in convoy during a patrol at Shoalwater Bay Training Area in North Queensland during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2017. Photo: Australian Department of Defence, online. Contents Preface 1 Prologue: Ambushed in Afghanistan 2 The Bushmaster’s uncertain start 5 The origins of Project Bushranger: ‘thugs in thongs’ 8 The beginnings 14 The contest begins 17 Faraway wars: southern Africa 19 Namibia: peacekeeping in African minefields 21 Cambodia and the Army’s ability to manoeuvre 24 The project gets underway 26 Building in Bendigo 28 The project unravels 31 Fuel on the fire 36 Crisis point: the project hangs in the balance 41 Operational necessity 44 Prepared for production 46 Iraq and the bloody end of the ‘soft-skinned’ era 49 The threat: a simple path to carnage 54 A study in steel 79 vi THE BUSHMASTER: FROM CONCEPT TO COMBAT On operations 84 Driving Route Whale 88 Allies under fire 90 Manning the rocket pod 94 JAFT: ‘Just a fucking truck’? 96 Lessons learned 103 More lessons learned in battle 107 Epilogue 111 Acronyms and abbreviations 113 About the author 114 Acknowledgements 115 Preface Brendan Nicholson’s account of the Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle is the classic story of the ugly duckling—an ‘armoured Winnebago’—transformed swan-like into the vital lifesaver for Australian and Dutch troops on combat operations in Afghanistan. It was never designed to play that role. Based on South African and Rhodesian experiments with landmine-blast-deflecting V-shaped hulls, the Bushmaster was first conceived as a lightly armoured truck. In 1980s ‘Defence of Australia’ planning, the Bushmaster would move troops around the vastness of northern Australia pursuing ‘thugs in thongs’ bent on harassing locals. Nicholson shows that it took a long time for the Army to come to love ‘this massive thing’ that wasn’t intended to be a fighting vehicle, which was originally sold to government as a simple off-the-shelf acquisition but in fact became a complex development project pushing industry and Defence into new and more productive relationships. Indeed, ‘The Bushmaster’s capability wasn’t fully appreciated until it was in action,’ Nicholson argues, and by then it was seen to be a defining reason why so many Australian soldiers survived improvised explosive devices (IEDs) while so many British and American lives were lost. ‘Great equipment saves lives,’ a British Army officer sadly recalls. ‘Soldiers under my command paid the ultimate price’ for want of great equipment. Viewed as a case study of Australian defence equipment acquisition at work, this account of the Bushmaster in development and then in combat on operations offers deep insights based on multiple interviews with people intimately involved with the vehicle. An Army officer confides to an industry mate: ‘I can’t build without you, and you can’t succeed without me.’ A cheaper off-the-shelf overseas buy would not have given Australia the flexibility to adapt the Bushmaster to changing enemy tactics in Afghanistan. Indeed, the way industry, the Army, Defence scientists and others worked so quickly and effectively together to harden the Bushmaster against ever more devastating IEDs is a model of the ‘fundamental input to capability’ idea that promotes innovative work between Defence and industry. ‘It’s going to be either a complete failure or an absolutely outstanding success,’ was how one early participant described Bushmaster. This is the inspiring history of how a project that was almost killed for want of a sponsor came to save the lives of hundreds of Australian and Dutch soldiers. My thanks go to Tony Fraser, the Head of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group in the Department of Defence, for his continuing support of ASPI’s series of case studies in defence capability. Peter Jennings, Executive Director, Australian Strategic Policy Institute 2 THE BUSHMASTER: FROM CONCEPT TO COMBAT Prologue: Ambushed in Afghanistan On a spring afternoon in April 2006, a convoy carrying Australian and Afghan troops grinds up a dirt road near the village of Kakarak in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province. They’re searching through the lush fertile zone at the base of a valley framed by towering brown mountains that march off towards the Hindu Kush. The line is led by a six-wheeled Land Rover long-range patrol vehicle driven by soldiers from Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) as it heads deeper into the West Dorafshan district—a Taliban insurgent stronghold. The end of the harsh Afghan winter has signalled the start of the fighting season, and this is an uncomfortable place to be. The soldier manning the patrol vehicle’s 50-calibre machine-gun warily scans the high ground above the road for signs of an ambush. The SASR contingent is followed by a mix of vehicles carrying Afghan troops and more Australians. At the rear are three nuggety armoured troop carriers—Bushmasters— crewed by Australian commandos. The Bushmasters are new to the Army, and to the theatre, and the commandos of the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (4RAR) are wary of them. They enjoy the situational awareness that comes with their wide-open Land Rovers and they’re concerned that they’ll lose that awareness in the confines of the Bushmaster. ‘It seemed very big and put us in a box or a cage where we couldn’t really react to situations,’ says a commando on that patrol. He was a combat medic then and he can’t be identified because he’s still serving in the special forces. ‘We thought: what’s this massive thing? I’m not going in that—everyone will shoot at it.’ The road convoy carries 30 Australians, SAS and commandos, and a 50-strong unit from the Afghan National Army, which the Australians mentor. The convoy includes the patrol vehicles, and four- and six-wheeled off-road motorbikes. It’s close to 3 pm when explosions and long bursts of gunfire erupt from above them. The Taliban ambush the convoy from positions on a mountainside, high over the road, with rockets and AK-47 assault rifles and their old but deadly Russian Dushka heavy machine-guns. As they pour a barrage of rockets and gunfire down onto the soldiers below, the Taliban fighters concentrate on the soft-skinned lead vehicle, deducing from its array of aerials that it’s the command car.