Page 78 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019

PACIFIC
ATTACK CLASS
“Given that the launch of the first-of-class Attack boat is expected in 2030, anticipated construction time for the first boat is eight years.”
“That means the cooling and the genera- tion systems are already about right, galley arrangements are about right, the hydraulic power plan to steer the boat is about right; they’re already in production, and that’s a tremendous advantage as is our access to the Barracuda’s design team,” Johnson noted.
A three-year $500 million Design and Mobilisation contract signed with DCNS in September 2016 covered early design activities, moving into the preliminary de- sign stage towards the end of that period. This was to include studies to inform the selection of key equipment.
The initial focus was on moving a DCNS team to Adelaide and an Austra- lian team – now 40-strong - to Cherbourg, and readying the appropriate facilities, in- cluding secure communications and IT systems supporting design activities in Australia and France.
In June 2017 DCNS changed its name to Naval Group, although its shareholding as a private company remained unchanged with the French state holding 62.49 per cent of equity, Thales 35 per cent, and company and employees’ shares account- ing for the remaining 2.51 per cent.
Currently included in the Cherbourg team are 19 engineers from Naval Group Australia (NGA) and six personnel from
A casing party member casts a heaving line to members of HMAS Stirling Port Sevices as HMAS Farncomb prepares to berth alongside it's home port of Fleet Base West, WA.
Lockheed Martin Australia who are work- ing and undertaking specific submarine design training alongside their French counterparts.
Concept design under the Design and Mobilisation contract was completed in January 2019 in the wake of a concept studies review in late 2018 that found no significant areas of concern.
“Each phase of design builds on the pre- vious phase and what we want to ensure is that the previous phase of design is correct and balanced,” explained RADM Sammut.
Critical systems
“Now we’re looking at the ability of the critical systems as they become known in
greater detail, making sure that they con- tinue to meet agreed requirements so that the boat stays in balance.
“As we get more details from suppli- ers about equipment performances, we check and ensure that those performances will be able to meet our most important requirements. There’s a fairly rigorous process of ensuring that we don’t take the design further until we know the design at this point is balanced.
“That’s a successive process, we’ll do that again when we get to the next level of detail and then we’ll do it again at the following level.”
Germany’s MTU was named in early 2019 as sup- plier of the diesel generators that turn mechanised ener- gy into electricity. Suppliers of the main electric motor,
main DC switchboards, main storage bat- teries and weapons discharge systems, all of which will contribute to the design solution, will be announced late in 2019.
“We have a systems requirements review in the fourth quarter of 2019 to ensure we’re making defensible decisions about the trade-off between capability and cost, and a systems functional review in the first quarter of 2021,” explained RADM Sammut. “Then we have the preliminary design review scheduled for 2023”.
Program momentum continued to grow with the signature in March 2019 with NGA of the Submarine Design Contract with an initial work scope of $605 million.
This funding covers basic design activi-
ties running to 2021-22 that will largely define the submarine that will be built. Ap- proval has already been received under the same contract for a second design compo- nent that will take work through to 2023.
The March contract was the first to be executed under an overarching Strategic Partnering Agreement (SPA) signed the previous month. This set out terms and con- ditions between NGA and the Common- wealth that will endure for the entire Sea 1000programme,thusavoidingtheneedto negotiatetransitioningphasesfromscratch.
SPA overview
Negotiations on the SPA began in early 2017 and were intended to be completed that year. Discussions were drawn out by sensitive is- sues that included the length of warranty periods to cover potential defects, and the implications for the transfer of intellectual property rights in the event of a merger be- tween NGA parent company Naval Group and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.
A change in NGA’s leadership during the tail-end of negotiations saw the appoint- ment in July 2018 of John Davis as CEO and Future Submarine Programme Direc- tor, replacing interim CEO Brent Clark.
Clark had stepped in as interim CEO following the resignation of Sean Costello in March 2017, less than a year after NGA won the Sea 1000 contract.
Davis’ background includes roles with Raytheon Australia, the Air Warfare De- stroyer programme, BMT Defence Servic- es, and 14 years with the UK Ministry for Defence, the latter in senior technical and project positions involving nuclear-pow- ered attack and ballistic missile submarines.
78 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
DEFENCE