Minister for Defence Materiel Dr Mike Kelly today opened the LAND 121 Maintenance Training Facility at Gaza Ridge Barracks near Bandiana in northern Victoria.
The Maintenance Training Facility will train more than 2000 Australian Defence Force personnel over the next decade to maintain the next generation of field vehicles, including the newly introduced Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon fleet.
“This state-of-the-art facility will provide our vehicle mechanics and vehicle electricians with a better understanding of the vehicle’s capabilities and limits to ensure we get the best levels of performance possible from our equipment,” Dr Kelly said.
“The facility’s workshop will have the capacity to manage even the largest and most sophisticated of the ADF’s new generation of field vehicles. It will also allow engine access on vehicles fitted with protective armour.”
An Australian company, St Hilliers Construction, was responsible for the construction of the new Maintenance Training Facility, which cost approximately $10 million and took 14 months to complete.
The new facility will support the Introduction into Service of LAND 121 (Project Overlander), a $7.5 billion program providing more than 7500 new protected and unprotected vehicles to the ADF over the next decade.
Students will be trained to maintain the ADF’s new fleet of 4×4 and 6×6 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagons and, in later years, the medium and heavy trucks to be delivered under LAND 121 Phase 3B and the light protected mobility vehicles to be delivered under LAND 121 Phase 4.
The new Maintainer Training Facility will be training ADF vehicle mechanics and vehicle electricians for the next three decades, well beyond the period in which the new vehicles are introduced into service.