The Australian government will hand over a new defense aid package to Ukraine, which will include Bushmaster armored vehicles.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced this on his social media.

“Negotiations with Mr. Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese. Thank you! A new powerful defense package, including 30 Bushmaster armored vehicles,” Zelensky wrote.

Bushmaster armored vehicles produced by Thales Australia will not come in service with the Defense Forces of Ukraine for the first time. They have been in use since the spring of last year and actively participated in the Kharkiv offensive operation.

In total, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Australia has transferred 90 armored vehicles of this type to Ukraine in several batches. With the new package, their number should increase to 120 units.

Part of the vehicles was delivered with a light remote combat module by the EOS company, on which our military installed 7,62 and 12.7 mm machine guns, as well as 40-mm Mk.19 automatic grenade launchers. Control from the combat module is output to the operator’s console located next to the driver’s seat.

The rest of the vehicles arrived in a simpler configuration, with open turrets with a machine for installing the aforementioned weapons.

The Ukrainian military highly appreciated the protective qualities of the armored vehicle:

“I want to say that the Australian Bushmaster has done pretty well. At the beginning of the war, we did not have vehicles with this level of anti-puncture protection, and this vehicle holds very well against fragments. When we were leaving the city of Lysychansk, there was a case of the 82nd mine exploding right near the vehicle’s wheel. Then, only the wheel had faded, but we successfully reached the destination, and all the personnel remained alive and unharmed,” – soldier Volodymyr shared.

Bushmaster

Bushmaster PMV is an Australian MRAP manufactured by Thales Australia. Its mass production began in 2005.

It is capable of transporting nine soldiers. It provides protection against small arms and mine explosions (6 kg of TNT), which meets the STANAG4569 standard.

The vehicle weighing 12.4 tons is equipped with a 6-cylinder Caterpillar 3126E turbodiesel engine with a capacity of 330 hp, which allows to accelerate it to 100 km/h on the highway.