39 Howitzer Field Guns offered to RSLs and Australian historical organisations

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced the release of a Request for Offer for the dis­pos­al of 39 M2A2 How­itzers.

The How­itzers will be offered exclu­sive­ly to RSL organ­i­sa­tions, Viet­nam Vet­er­ans Asso­ci­a­tions and his­tor­i­cal organ­i­sa­tions around the country. 

“The M2A2 How­itzer pro­vid­ed out­stand­ing ser­vice to Aus­tralia and mak­ing them avail­able will help to pre­serve this impor­tant part of our mil­i­tary his­to­ry,” Mr Clare said. 

“The How­itzers were a vital part of Australia’s arse­nal. They were crit­i­cal in pro­vid­ing close artillery fire sup­port to the Aus­tralian Army in Vietnam.” 

M2A2 How­itzers have not been deployed on oper­a­tions since the Viet­nam War. 

They are cur­rent­ly being with­drawn from ser­vice and will be retired by Decem­ber 2012. 

Approved recip­i­ents will be expect­ed to pay for demil­i­tari­sa­tion ($4,000) and oth­er costs such as trans­port and site prepa­ra­tion. The total max­i­mum cost is esti­mat­ed to be approx­i­mate­ly $16,000.

Organ­i­sa­tions dis­play­ing the M2A2 How­itzers will be sub­ject to the approval of the Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment, under their Inter­na­tion­al Traf­fic in Arms Reg­u­la­tions .

The Request for Offer will close on 24 Octo­ber 2011. 

Copies of the Request for Offer can be obtained by reg­is­ter­ing on the AUSTENDER web site locat­ed at tenders.gov.au quot­ing ref­er­ence DMOFD/RFO118/2011 or by con­tact­ing the AUSTENDER helpdesk by phone: 1300 651 698, by email: tenders@finance.gov.au.

Queries in rela­tion to the offer can be made to the Defence Dis­pos­als Agency 

by email­ing disposals@defence.gov.au or phon­ing on 02 9393 2914. 

Imagery of the M2A2 How­itzer Guns is avail­able at: http://images.defence.gov.au/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?archiveId=5003&search=20113130

Media con­tact: Kore­na Flana­gan 02 6277 7620 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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