Page 64 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019

PACIFIC
HUNTER CLASS
“ In RAN service, the standard ship’s complement (with an embarked aviation element) will be 180 personnel, but the design still permits this number to grow to 208 if required.”
The Hunters will fulfil a range of roles at sea.
acquired in the future to replace the vener- able Harpoon.
Combat system
As noted earlier, the announcement by government in October 2017 that it would mandate the Combat Management Sys- tem enterprise across Navy’s future major surface combatants, has resulted in Lock- heed Martin being selected to supply its Aegis Combat System, with Saab Austra- lia providing the sovereign tactical inter- face. Together with a common Co-opera- tive Engagement (CEC) capability across the future fleet and standardised ESSM & SM-2 weapons, Hunter will enjoy close integration with US surface combatants.
The ship’s aviation facilities will also be modified to accommodate the MH-60R, which will be Navy’s primary combat helicopter for many years to come. These changes include the reconfiguration of the hangar bay itself, an Aircraft Ship In- tegrated Secure and Traverse (ASIST) track-mounted helicopter recovery sys-
tem, which is currently also being fitted to the Hobart class Air Warfare Destroy- ers, and changes to the ship’s air weapons magazine to accommodate the MH-60Rs Mk.54 torpedo and Lockheed Martin AGM-114N Hellfire missiles.
In RAN service, the standard ship’s complement (with an embarked aviation element) will be 180 personnel, but the de- sign still permits this number to grow to 208 if required.
Other modifications may be required as the detailed design of the Hunter evolves to incorporate future capabilities. One ex- ample of this is the Unmanned Aerial Sys- tem (UAS) being acquired under Navy’s Sea 129 Phase 5 (Maritime Tactical UAS) program, which may select a fixed wing or a rotary wing platform, or maybe even both.
“As we continue with the maturation of the final design process, part of our discus- sions with the Commonwealth – and with the various capability development groups in particular – is getting a detailed under- standing of the through life upgrades they
either have in the pipeline, or are consider- ing as options,” Lockhart explained.
“We are looking at what’s being done in other Navy upgrade programs such as the ASMD configuration changes that have been made to the Anzac class frigates and the aviation upgrades we’ve just completed on the Hobart Class. All of those are be- ing assessed against the Hunter design space and we’re taking as much opportu- nity as we can to de-risk the build program by making sure we have enough people in the upgrade programs of other platforms that we can transfer that thinking, learn- ing and skills across.
“We’re taking every opportunity to con- sider their relevance to Hunter, either as a design or build strategy, or as a through- life management consideration.”
Build in Australia
The planned drumbeat for shipbuild- ing at Osborne will see a little over three years between the start of work on HMAS Flinders in 2022 and that of the second ship (HMAS Hunter), reducing to two years between Hunter and the third ship (HMAS Tasman). This will progressively reduce throughout the build, resulting in an estimated gap of just 18 months be- tween the eighth and ninth ship in the late 2030s or early 2040s.
But before construction can begin, a new digitally-enabled shipyard at Osborne South has to be completed, having been
64 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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