NextGen vehicle training facility opens

Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare has opened Defence’s newest training facility, the Chora Valley Lines, at RAAF Base Amberley.

The Chora Valley Lines will train more than 10,000 Australian Defence Force personnel over the next 10 years to operate next generation of field vehicles and trailers.

This includes the new Mercedes Benz G-Wagon.

The facility cost approximately $11 million, and took nine months and more than 52,000 hours of construction work to complete.

The G-Wagons have now started to roll out to Army and Air Force units across Australia.

“These vehicles have been built and tested to exacting standards. They are as tough as the Army and Air Force personnel that they will carry,” Clare said.

The G-Wagons are part of LAND 121 or “Project Overlander”, a $7.5 billion program providing more than 7,500 new protected and unprotected vehicles to the ADF over the next decade.

The new fleet will comprise 2,146 unprotected Mercedes Benz G-Wagons and 1,799 trailers manufactured by Haulmark in Brisbane.

The G-Wagon fleet also comprises eight mission system variants ranging from station wagons and carryalls to ambulances and surveillance and reconnaissance vehicles. These specialist modules are manufactured by G.H. Varley in Newcastle.