Page 12 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2019

NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
Harris Defence
Australia wins NZ
comms contract
Soldiers from 2/1 RNZIR & Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles during Exercise Sangro.
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
HARRIS Defence Australia (HDA) has signed a contract to deliver a mobile tactical command system for the NZ Army under their Networked Enabled Army (NEA) program.
Under the $40 million contract, Harris will design and deliver a tactical commu- nications network under Tranche 1 that will include:
• command post environment (the physical command post and the IT systems for C2)
• universal bearer network (common ac-
cess nodes for communications)
• mobile tactical radio system (network- capable combat radios, a battle manage-
ment system and software).
“Communication networks are vital to defence force operations and must be modern, effective and designed to meet the needs of military personnel,” NZ Defence Minister Ron Mark said.
“The contract has been signed as part of
the first tranche of work being delivered under the NEA program, one of several projects underway addressing equipment obsolescence.”
“HDA is very proud to be selected as a long-term partner with the NEA and in- deed the NZ Defence Force,” Alan Cal- laghan, President and MD, Harris Defence Australia said to ADM. “The Master Supply Agreement signed with the NZ Ministry of Defence on the 21st of December 2018 is for an initial period of seven years with ex- tensions to 11 years.”
Akin to the ADF’s Land 200 program, the NEA program aims to provide national land forces and special operations forces with a deployable, networked command, control, communications, computers, in- telligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capability.
NEA will be delivered in four tranches out till 2025/2026 with tranche one ex-
pected to be delivered by the end of 2021. “This contract period covers more than the first tranche of the NEA and HDA plans to continue its close relationship with the NEA by supporting the NZDF for the foreseeable future,” Callaghan said. “While the contract extends over later NEA tranches, HDA knows we must continue to deliver the very best tacti- cal communications capabilities for the NZDF to maintain our trusted partner-
ship with the NEA.
Callaghan also confirmed that Harris staff
will be co-located with the NEA Integrated Project Team (IPT) to deliver the contract.
“As this is a very large and complex ac- tivity, additional staff from our Australian office will support the NEA program. As the knowledge and skills within the Har- ris NZ team increases, HDA will transfer more work to the local element,” Cal- laghan concluded.
Next two F-35s touch down in Australia
THE next two F-35A Joint Strike Fighter aircraft have arrived in Australia.
“I’m pleased to welcome our newest F- 35As, A35-011 and A35-012, bringing the total number of aircraft in Australia to four,” Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne said.
“After completing various validation and verification activities in the US, these aircraft have now arrived at RAAF Base Williamtown and will be assigned to Number 3 Squadron.”
The first two aircraft arrived at RAAF Wil- liamtown on December
10 last year.
The first aircraft deliv-
ered in 2019 are part of 141 aircraft produced in LRIP 11 by Lockheed Martin. The 102 F-35As
The latest F-35A
Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to arrive in Australia taxis into the hangers at RAAF Base Williamtown.
produced in LRIP 11 will be the first to cost less than US$90 million (AU$127.6 mil- lion) per copy.
Minister for Defence Industry Linda Reynolds said the F-35A program has pro- vided significant opportunities for Austra- lian industry.
“More than 50 Australian companies have directly shared in over $1.3 billion in global F-35A production contracts to date, employing more than 2,400 Australians,” Minister Reynolds said.
“More opportunities are expected for Australian companies as production con- tinues, with Australian industry involve- ment expected to exceed $2 billion by 2023 and employ 5,000 people nationally.”
Australia will take delivery of eight F- 35A aircraft in 2019 and at least 72 aircraft over the life of the program.
12 | May 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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