Premier and Minister for State Development, Trade and the Antarctic, Jeremy Rockliff, has congratulated Elphinstone following their successful joint bid with Hanwha Defense Group to be part of the Land 400 Phase 3 program.
"This is fantastic news, that will create new jobs and increase investment on the North West coast, not just for Elphinstone, but for numerous other businesses through the supply chain," the Premier said.
"It's a great outcome for Tasmania and demonstrates the success that advanced manufacturers in our State can achieve, and of the success of our Government's support for this important industry.
"I recognise the significant effort that goes into defence bids and the outcome is not always success. So, I applaud Elphinstone in their perseverance in their defence endeavours – it has paid off.
"This is just the beginning of the Hanwha and Elphinstone partnership – the aspiration of both groups is to achieve even greater global export opportunities together, delivering excellence in defence products across the globe.
"We want to build on these gains so that even more businesses can benefit and our investment of $5 million, in partnership with Elphinstone to deliver a new $23 million, world-class facility will provide more opportunities for global defence contracts.
"It's another important step in opening up even more business opportunities for our world-class defence industries, to the benefit of Tasmanian jobs and our economy."
Minister for Advanced Manufacturing and Defence Industries, Madeleine Oglivie, said Elphinstone and other Tasmanian companies CBG Systems and Penguin Composites have been involved in Hanwha's bid for the $5 billion to $7 billion project to supply 129 infantry fighting vehicles to the Australian Army.
"While full details of the contract are still to be released, this major project will likely be Tasmania's single biggest ever defence supply contract and demonstrates the confidence in Tasmania's defence industry and signals even bigger things to come," she said.
"We have confidence in Tasmanian industry and will always stand shoulder to shoulder with them to build Tasmania's economy. Today's success is a result of hard work and industry development and I congratulate Elphinstone.
"This builds upon the existing work that these innovative local companies were already doing with Hanwha on the LAND 8116 Huntsman Self-Propelled Howitzer project, which until today was the State's biggest defence contract win.
"Hanwha's decision to involve Tasmanian industry on these types of contracts is a clear demonstration that our advanced manufacturing capabilities and commitment to quality are being noticed and taken seriously.
"Importantly, the more Tasmanian companies that get involved in the defence supply sector, the more it increases the visibility of our capabilities and products and the more contracts it promises to attract."
