Defence iQ’s 2025 International Armoured Vehicles conference (IAV 2025), held in Farnborough from 21 to 23 January, inevitably drew the presence of a number of platforms vying for a place in the British Army’s Land Mobility Programme (LMP).
Among these was Thales Australia’s Bushmaster 5.5 4×4 multi-role protected vehicle, which Thales is pitching as a military off-the-shelf (MOTS) solution for the Medium Protected Mobility (Med PM) subset of LMP.
While UK special forces acquired two dozen Bushmaster vehicles in 2008, the Bushmaster 5.5 is a Bushmaster upgrade that entered service with the New Zealand Army in 2023.
The upgrades that led to the Bushmaster 5.5 were originally made to address the British Army’s Multi-Role Vehicle – Protected (MRV-P) competition, which was initiated in February 2016 but terminated by late 2022. However, speaking to ESD at IAV 2025 on 21 January, Jonathan Welch, head of sales for land systems at Thales UK, noted that the competitive MRV-P effort had whittled down 13 contenders to two: the Bushmaster and the Eagle V from General Dynamics European Land Systems. Both of these vehicles went through a full evaluation and testing programme in 2018.
The main changes to the vehicle, said Welch, were the cutting of side doors for easier access and exit on both sides of the vehicle, an upgrading of the axles, the removal of transparent armour (windows) from the sides of the vehicle to increase protection, removal of a spare wheel indent on the rear right of the vehicle to increase internal vehicle (it has run-flat tyres, so does not need a spare) and an increase in the size of the vehicle’s back door. The latter two changes are especially relevant to the production of an ambulance variant of the vehicle, which would feature a stretcher loading system.
The vehicle also offers a generic vehicle architecture to facilitate the easy addition of extra mission systems, such as weapon stations, for example.
With a gross weight of 17 tonnes, the Bushmaster 5.5 is 7.2 m long, can accommodate 10 occupants and can be airlifted by a C-130 transport aircraft. Powered by a 224 kW turbo diesel engine with six-speed transmission and featuring independent coil suspension, it has what Thales claims is “outstanding tactical mobility” while offering a maximum speed of 100 km/h and a maximum range of 800 km.
With regard to responding to LMP, Welch said, “We’re ready to respond to any request for information or quotation [RFI or RFQ] that happens to come out … to offer a commercial off-the shelf vehicle – all based on the fact that we previously ran on the MRV-P programme.”
Asked how soon the vehicles could be delivered, Welch said, “If the RFI or RFQ was received in the next six months, then we can deliver to the end of the 2027 timeline. We can either deliver from the hot production line in Bendigo in Australia, or we can establish a production line in the UK with a transfer of technology, adding that “there’s nothing in the vehicle that cannot be done in the UK”.
The British Army stated at IAV 2024 that around 1,600 Med PM vehicles would be needed to replace its Mastiff, Ridgeback and Wolfhound mine-protected patrol vehicles, which are due to go out of service around 2028, as well as the Bulldog tracked armoured personnel carrier, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030.
