The division will work alongside Marshall Aerospace Australia, which was established in 2000 in Richmond, New South Wales. MAA provides C-130H engineering support for the Royal Australian Air Force through a longstanding partnership with Qantas Defense Services.

"We are setting up Marshall Land Systems Pty because we can see a profitable and sustainable future for it in the short- and long-term," Peter Callaghan, chief executive of Marshall Land Systems, said.

"We see this as evidence of our support to our defense and prime contractor customers throughout Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region and to the concept of Australian industry capability.

"We have already identified a number of projects we are working on as well as partners, such as Tectonica Australia that we are working with. We are working with state governments to identify the best site for the company to operate its manufacturing and maintenance facility. The initial operating office is expected to be close to the Defense Material Organization, possibly co-located with Tectonica," he said.

The company will have design, manufacturing and customer capability support functions, a company statement said. There also will be a "planned migration of skills" from its home base in the United Kingdom to the Australian business.

Marshall Land Systems in the United Kingdom adapts other manufacturers' vehicles to carry or use MLS designed and manufactured defense support systems.

These include truck-mounted mobile surgical units for the Norwegian army and truck-mounted mobile bakeries for servicing British troops near a front line.

In 2005 MLS was awarded a contract with the British army to supply 4,500 cargo and flat-bed bodies for a new military support truck.

The decision to set up a land systems division in Australia comes after a July contract win for Marshall Aerospace Australia to support a repair assessment program on the P-3C Orion, the Royal Australian Air Force's main maritime patrol aircraft. MAA has been supporting deep maintenance of the 18 aircraft based at the Richmond Air Base near Sydney since 1993.

Since 2000, MAA has worked with Qantas Defense Services on the RAAF fleet of C-130Hs. The Orion win was the first contract that MAA had won independently of QDS and the C-130 platform, the company said at the time.

Marshall Aerospace Australia, a fully registered Australian company, is a member of the Defense Materiel Organization Support Services panel. It has also achieved Defense Recognized Supplier Status for its contribution to the continued sustainability of the Australian defense force.

In Europe, Airbus Military awarded Marshall Aerospace a contract in 2005 to carry out risk reduction flight trials for the Europrop International TP400-D6 turboprop engine to be fitted to the Airbus A400M military transporter.

In May 2006 the United Kingdom awarded Marshall Aerospace a 24-year, $2.34 billion prime contract for Hercules maintenance and support at MLS's Cambridge airstrip and at a Royal Air Force operating base. The contract is in partnership with Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce's aerospace division.

Marshall said it is engaged in a number of major manufacturing projects, including the production of Marshall-designed lightweight fuel tanks for Boeing 747-400 ER and Boeing 777 ER aircraft, and the design and manufacture of nacelles for the HondaJet.

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