Page 46 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

46 DEFENCE IN THE NORTH
NORTHERN BASES
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LEFT: An F-35A Lightning II fully loaded with inert GBU-12 laser guided ordnance enroute to the Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory
tronic attack aircrew training “will remain a priority with the ongoing introduction of the Mobile Threat Training Emitter System (MTTES),” thus confirming an important upgrade to the Delamere Air Weapons Range, about 120km south of RAAF Tindal.
In September 2021 then-Defence Industry Minister Me- lissa Price disclosed indigenous construction company Tiwi Partners had been awarded a $107 million contract at Dela- mere to construct “three new Mobile Emitter Site Mounds”. The work was expected to be completed by June 2022 and would “ensure Delamere continues to be able to provide the required capability to Air Force”.
cated, continues on a $223 million base refurbishment project intended to support anticipated growth over the next two decades.
A concurrent $272 million project to support naval oper- ations in the north will deliver a new outer wharf at HMAS Coonawarra capable of accommodating major fleet units. Speaking prior to construction, (then) Rear Admiral Jona- than Mead, then Head of Navy Capability, described the wharf as “a significant force multiplier”.
“That will give us an autonomous berthing facility abut- ting HMAS Coonawarra that is designed to accommodate everything from a 27,500 tonne LHD down to the future Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). You’ll be able to get one LHD alongside, or a combination of up to three or four destroyers or frigates,” he said.
Nine Armidale-class patrol boats are currently based at HMAS Coonawarra.
The new structure will provide shore power and water, phone, data, and sewerage offload facilities. It will also in- clude a refuelling capability but it will not be used for am- phibious load/off load tasks, which are being undertaken via a recently-completed multi-user barge ramp facility at East Wharf.
US Marines from visiting US Navy amphibious assault ships will also be able to disembark at the new wharf rather than at Darwin’s civilian wharf, where commercial berths must be booked in advance.
Meanwhile the future of the common user ship lift pro- posed for Darwin by the Northern Territory government ap- pears more secure following the recent award of a design consultancy to continue delivery of the $500 million project.
According to a 6 March government release, the contract will ensure the design is optimised to meet the needs of fu- ture users in the marine services sector including Defence, shipping, and national security operations. Although the
“THE PINE GAP JOINT DEFENCE FACILITY LOCATED ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF ALICE SPRINGS REMAINS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST CLASSIFIED AND STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT SITES”
While the US State Depart- ment approved the sale to Aus- tralia in 2016 of two Electronic Warfare Range Systems at an estimated cost of US$115 mil- lion, no delivery dates were given nor has any official con- firmation of their installation been sighted, although the budget statement reference to “ongoing introduction” suggests this may have been reasonably recent, in whole or in part.
The approved EW range sys- tems incorporate MTTES as their major element. These re- alistically simulate electronic emissions from anti-aircraft artillery and a range of surface to air missile threats, and assess the performance of radar warning receivers and elec-
tronic countermeasure systems.
BOOSTING MARITIME CAPABILITY
On the west side of Darwin, work at the Larrakeyah De- fence Precinct, within which HMAS Coonawarra is lo-
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