On Friday 4th March 2011, Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare MP officially opened Chemring Australia’s new $30 million state-of-the-art air launched countermeasures manufacturing plant in Lara, Victoria
The facility was built after the Commonwealth awarded Chemring a 10 year contract, worth $160 million in November 2008 to supply countermeasures and pyrotechnics to the Australian Defence Force. The facility is the only countermeasures manufacturing plant in the southern hemisphere and is capable of producing flares of all configurations to satisfy the Australian Defence Force’s countermeasure needs. It also includes a Research and Development capability to support the ADF in developing solutions to meet evolving threats.
Mr Clare was joined by Member for Corio Richard Marles and Victorian Minister for Manufacturing, Exports and Trade Richard Dalla-Riva in opening the facility. Mr Marles has commended Chemring in saying, “The company is doing important work helping to keep our troops safe, and they’re doing it right here in Lara”.
The contract is a significant investment in regional Victoria in creating jobs. The workforce has doubled from 30 to 60 and is looking to go up to 80. The key success in developing new capability has been developing staff. Managing Director of Chemring Australia, Michael Flowers has stated that ‘there are people with the right core skill available locally. The company’s approach has been to recruit highly skilled local staff and train them in countermeasures specific elements’.
Chemring Australia plans to target the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as a key international opportunity and has engaged with Lockheed Martin to examine the opportunity within the Australian Industry Participation Program. A milestone in the program was the approval late last year of a Manufacturing licensing Agreement by the US Government.
Chemring Australia is proud to announce that its air launched countermeasures facility is ready to manufacture current generation flares and has plans in place to start production of JSF flares. This state-of-the-art facility will enable Chemring Australia to enter the international market for air launched countermeasures.
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