Page 156 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019

DEFENCE
FROM THE SOURCE
REAR ADMIRAL PETER QUINN
“We have a whole of government
approach to growing and sustaining the required workforce; the new Naval Shipbuilding College will be central to this effort.”
Both the Hobart and Canberra classes have been a step change for Navy.
Continued from page 166
Indo-Pacific Endeavour (IPE) – we did the third iteration of that this year with an LHD, two frigates, a tanker and 1,200 per- sonnel from across the ADF with visits and exercises all the way through the region to India under the IPE banner. We’re also stepping up in the Pacific and PNG, mostly with our patrol boat fleet, but also with our amphibious and hydrographic fleets.
ADM: You touched on the Hobart and Canberra classes, one of which went on IPE; how are those two classes perform- ing? Are they performing as you’d expect? QUINN: If I look at our amphibious ca- pabilities, in particular the two LHDs, the jump in capability we have seen over the last three years with those ships are pretty amazing. This year the capability has really matured during the amphibi- ous Sea Series exercises and then during EX Talisman Sabre. We had both LHDs demonstrating their impressive amphibi- ous capability conducting multi-spot he- licopter operations with three different
classes of helicopters simultaneously and, at the same time, executing landing craft well deck operations by day, by night, in all different configurations. We achieved superb ADF capability outcomes during that period that we’re very proud of.
We also had the LHD landing craft, the LCM1E, fully integrated during the exer- cises and couple of days after EX Talisman Sabre we demonstrated that those vessels can carry all of Army’s vehicle types, in- cluding their tanks and armoured recov- ery vehicles. So we’re very confident that we’re on track to declare final operational capability of our amphibious ships and landing craft this year.
On the DDG front, we’re equally pleased about how that class is perform- ing and progressing. Hobart achieved ini- tial operational capability last year after we deployed her over to San Diego to do Combat Systems Sea Qualification Trials, which went very well. Brisbane is on her way to the US now to do the same series of trials; we’ll continue to incrementally build the capability.
And Hobart has just completed her first
maintenance cycle following IOC and has just completed a successful SM-2 Missile test in the East Australian exercise area. She’s on track to be operationally deploying later this year. They’re a superb platform and they’re really achieving a big step forward in introducing 5th Generation capabilities to Navy. The Hobart class are all fitted with cooperative engagement capability (CEC). They are the only platforms outside the US that have that capability and it brings a huge leap forward in the technology that we’re applying in area air warfare.
ADM: What do you mean by 5th Gen in a Navy context?
QUINN: I think it’s a bit different to the Air Force context, but I think Air Force is now using 5th Gen more broadly than just stealth aircraft. In the Navy context we’re talking about that 21st century integrated and net- worked force where the capability output is much greater than the sum of the parts. A more highly integrated Navy with the sort of systems tying the fleet together like CEC, evolving datalink systems and advanced sen- sors like the CEA Active Phased Array Ra- dars – and integrating not just within Navy but with the joint force and with our close allies and partners like the US.
ADM: Part of that sensor network would also include Fleet Air Arm. There was a bit of an issue with the MRH-90s
156 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au