Austal Appoints Defence Distributor for Kelvin Hughes in Australia, New Zealand

Leading electronics provider Kelvin Hughes has appointed global defence prime contractor Austal to lead its defence, border protection and paramilitary sales and support activities in Australia and New Zealand. The agreement will enable both companies to best support customers in Australasia.

Under the agreement, Austal will sell and support Kelvin Hughes’ naval and marine products, including the KH-2007 Naval Transceiver; Naval MANTADigital™ (NMD) Display and Processor System; Naval Tactical Display (NTD); SharpEye™ I- and F-band Transceivers and spare parts.  Austal has provided systems maintenance, repair and integration services for Kelvin Hughes products since 1993.

Austal’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bellamy, said: “We have developed a unique relationship with Kelvin Hughes over many years which we have now strengthened to best support our shared customer base. We believe this agreement will provide enhanced value to these customers in terms of cost, expertise and operational efficiency.”

Commenting on Austal’s appointment, Kelvin Hughes’ Chief Executive Officer, Russell Gould, said: “We are very pleased to have formalised our relationship with Austal as there are a number of synergies between our companies. These include growing our regional systems capabilities and the strengthening of our defence offerings to customers including the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.”

Andrew Bellamy said the Kelvin Hughes appointment demonstrated further progress in the expansion of the company’s defence and systems activities.
“This agreement, and the one with mission system integrator General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems we announced in March, demonstrates our ability to leverage our in-house capabilities and market position to expand the Austal business,” he said.

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Naval Today Staff, June 26, 2012; Image: Austal