12:22 GMT, October 17, 2008 The 500th Bushmaster to be manufactured has rolled off Thales’s production line in Bendigo, Victoria.

The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle is a highly effective platform for a variety of capabilities, and has repeatedly proven itself in successful overseas deployments with Australian and Dutch forces.

The landmark 500th Bushmaster highlights Thales’s vehicle design, development, manufacturing and integration at its Bendigo facility.

With more than a decade’s experience in designing, developing and manufacturing the Bushmaster family of vehicles and High Mobility Engineering Vehicles, Thales’s Bendigo team are Australia’s leaders in highly mobile protected military vehicle design and manufacture.

Bushmaster’s operational performance in Iraq and Afghanistan is proof of Thales’s global leadership in land mine and IED blast protected vehicles. Combined with Thales’s preeminent systems architecture and integration capabilities, Bushmaster has set the standard for armoured patrol and combat support vehicles for the next decade or more. Chris Jenkins, Thales Australia’s managing director, said the 500th Bushmaster was a tribute to the many people from Thales and the Commonwealth who had successfully collaborated on the vehicle.

"The Bushmaster is an extremely capable and flexible vehicle that is a shining example of Australian capabilities.

"Our engineering teams have unrivalled experience in vehicle design, and our highly-skilled manufacturing specialists produce vehicles to the highest standards.

"This combination is unique, and we are well placed to meet and exceed the Australian Defence Force’s requirements both now and in the future."