{"id":919347,"date":"2026-10-07T11:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919347\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T11:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:40:14","slug":"adf-pauses-use-of-supacat-troop-carrier-following-fatal-rollover-in-training-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919347\/","title":{"rendered":"ADF pauses use of Supacat troop carrier following fatal rollover in training exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Defence Force has paused the use of the troop carrier involved in the crash that killed Army Corporal Brendan Hannam south of Darwin on Monday.<\/p>\n

Corporal Hannam died when the vehicle rolled during a training exercise at the Mount Bundey Training Area.<\/p>\n

\"Corporal<\/p>\n

Corporal Brendan Hannam lost his life in a vehicle rollover at the Mount Bundey training ground, just outside of Darwin. (Supplied: ADF)<\/p>\n

Five other soldiers were injured, two of whom remain in Royal Darwin Hospital while the three others have returned to Robertson Barracks in Darwin.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media in Perth this afternoon, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle confirmed the vehicle involved in the fatal crash was a “Supacat troop carrying vehicle”.<\/p>\n

“The vehicle is used in the first brigade and it’s also used in our special forces units,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve paused operational use of that vehicle until the investigation has commenced to understand what, if anything, may be impacted.”\"Chief<\/p>\n

Susan Coyle says the ADF has paused use of the Supacat troop carrier. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The ADF has confirmed the vehicle involved in the rollover was a Supacat HMT (High Mobility Transporter).<\/p>\n

Lieutenant General Coyle said there had been no previous incidents involving the Supacat HMT and the pause was “normal standard practice that we do when we have a major accident and in particular, a fatality”.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant General Coyle also confirmed Corporal Hannam was not driving the vehicle when it rolled.<\/p>\n

“I have not spoken to the family, the unit is supporting the family at the moment,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m organising to go and visit the family shortly.”<\/p>\n

Lessons to be learned<\/p>\n

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said there would be “a series of investigations” following the rollover, including by ADF Inspector-General James Gaynor.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/p>\n

Richard Marles says an investigation will examine all fatal incidents that have happened over the course of the last few years. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“We need to be making sure that every lesson that can be learned from this incident is learned,” Mr Marles said.<\/p>\n

“I have spoken with the Chief of the Defence Force in light of what’s occurred on Monday, but also other fatal incidents that have happened over the course of the last few years.<\/p>\n

“To look at what would be the best vehicle to examine issues such as risk settings, management of fatigue, appropriate training, all of those issues across Army and the Defence Force, and he is going to come back to me with advice in respect of that.”<\/p>\n

Mr Marles said building Australia’s defence capability was about ensuring the nation had “the most capable defence force possible”, which was dangerous work.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The fatal accident occurred during a training exercise at Mount Bundey on Monday. (ABC News: Melissa Mackay)<\/p>\n

“The training is dangerous work, it does carry risk,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Monday was very much a reminder of that, and amidst all the lessons that we will need to learn from this, I come away feeling an enormous sense of gratitude to those who undertake that work wearing our nation’s uniform.<\/p>\n

“And I express my gratitude to all of those people now, as of course I do in respect of Corporal Brendan Hannam.”<\/p>\n

Mr Marles said Corporal Hannam had served in the Army for nine years, including deployments to Afghanistan and Ukraine, where he helped train new recruits.<\/p>\n

“He was really a person who had the bulk of his defence career ahead of him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our thoughts are very much also with those soldiers who are recovering.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Defence Force has paused the use of the troop carrier involved in the crash that killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[487565,14039,43,23283,44,8867,487566,487567,41,39,42,40,306093],"class_list":["post-919347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-army-corporal-brendan-hannam","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-headlines","tag-mount-bundey","tag-news","tag-northern-territory","tag-supacat","tag-supacat-troop-carrier","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-troop-carrier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}