Hawkei Australian Light Protected Vehicle

Thales Australia has released images of a mock-up of its Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle proposed for the Australian Army under the LAND 121 Phase 4 program. This is a smaller vehicle than the Bushmaster and designed to replace un-armoured Landrovers.

The Hawkei is claimed to "... become a fully integrated node on the network centric battlefield" with C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence). However, apart from having sufficient electrical generating capacity, it is not clear how a vehicle could have C4I fundamental to the design. Computer and telecommunications change much faster than vehicle designs. If the Hawkei had C4I closely integrated, the design would be obsolete with eighteen months.