Thales Australia is seeking Expressions of Interest for the provision of small arms accessories for an ongoing Australian Department of Defence procurement program. They will be commencing small arms accessories product analysis and testing in early 2014 under their current Land 125 Ph3C contract. Their primary area of focus is a small arms surveillance and target system ancillaries for fitment to Thale’s EF88 weapon system.
The ancillaries suite is to comprise of several elements that can be fitted by means of the STANAG 4694 rail system. These elements should provide surveillance, target acquisition, and point engagement by day and night. These elements should be compact, lightweight, simple, and robust while delivering the required performance.
The required elements:
Enhanced Day Sight Capability.
Backup/reversionary aiming capability – preference to be fitted concurrently with day sight.
Weapon Support Capability (bipod) – fitted in place of grenade launcher or foregrip.
Laser Aiming and Illumination Device (LAID) Capability – to be fitted concurrently with day sights and when in-line Image Intensifier is fitted to weapon.
Laser Aiming and Illumination Range Finding Device (LAIRD) Capability – to be fitted concurrently with day sights and when in-line Thermal Imager or Image Intensifier is fitted to weapon.
In-Line Image Intensification System (IIS) Capability – required to be fitted concurrently with Enhanced Day Sight (but not thermal imager).
In-Line Thermal Imaging System (TIS) Capability – to be fitted concurrently with Enhanced Day Sight (but not Image Intensifier).
Foregrip Capability.
More information can be found under the L125 Phase 3C Stage 2B EOI Supplier Information Template.
www.thalesgroup.com/en/australia/thales-seeking-expressions-interest-small-arms-accessories
Tags: Thales Australia
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Very average weapon, when will the army chiefs relise this and stop waisting money giving soldiers a sub standard weapon. Get with it and go for an AR.
Looking at this is so punishing!! Considering there are so many accessories on the market already for the AR, the ADF should abandon the program and accept their loss.
This weapon performs poor when wet/dirty, no ability to shoot off hand or in advanced shooting positions, you have to take the barrel off to clear a stoppage!!! etc…
The ADF need to look hard at themselves and ask, are we really giving our combat soldiers the best weapon available…
Does THALES know that this is 5.56 assault rifle… why in gods name does it need a thermal imaging system?
The most glaring indication that both the ADF and THALES have no idea what the hell they are doing is the fact that they are persisting with a bayonet lug instead of a full length RAS system, welcome to 1978…
Phase 1: Buy early version of weapon system
Phase 2: Implement own development cycle at odds with original manufacturer
Phase 3 – 47: Implement fixes to try and make weapon comparable to an off the shelf AR system purchasable for 1/20th the price…
Key goal: waste taxpayer money developing a broken ass weapon system by asking for features requested by people who don’t actually use it in combat… bipod…zzzzz
Anyone else note that none of the three rails are the same distance from the axis of the bore? Wtf?
So Thales will test all devices and tell the ADF which ones to choose?
Thales of all people? They are charging the ADF to do what their own organisation has to do through Diggerworks??
http://www.defence.gov.au/publications/20130521-Diggerworksbookletsmall.pdf
WTF, making dumber choices than under Smith…
Does nobody see an issue here.
Have Army not learnt anything from their dabble with 417- the AR is the benchmark modern rifle, bullpup is a dead end on the weapon tree of evolution
I love the email address: soldier.systems@thalesgroup.com.au
They have the tooling, they have the plant. The AUG isn’t going anywhere.