Page 32 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2019
P. 32

MARITIME
CONOPS
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
For most of the past three decades the Royal Australian Navy has maintained a single ship deployment of frigates to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO)
in support of coalition efforts. This is changing.
Naval warfare enhancement: Hobart & Hunter in the
BUT in recent years it has also conducted multi-ship deployments around the Asia- Pacific region, as well as taking part in large, multi-lateral exercises with more than just a single vessel. Indeed, previous Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, led the change from single ship operations to the task group construct that Navy is capable of operating within today.
This has been driven in one sense by the introduction of the two Canberra class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) amphibi- ous warfare vessels, but another major driv- er has been the need for the ADF as a whole to embrace Joint and networked operations, where several perhaps disparate but comple- mentary capabilities are harnessed together to provide an effect that is greater than the sum of the individual platforms and sys-
tems. However, Navy isn’t large enough to support continuous task groups, so each platform is required to have the capability and capacity to also operate independently.
The three Hobart class DDGs now en- tering service provide Navy (and the wider ADF) with a step change in capability, par- ticularly with regard to their primary air de- fence role, but they also represent a step for- ward in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability when compared with previous surface combatants.
Further into the future, the nine Hunter class frigates being acquired under Project Sea 5000 (Future Frigate) and due to enter service in the late part of next decade, will take Navy’s ASW capability to another level again. The Hunter class ships will also have the same baseline air defence capabil-
ity as the Hobart destroyers, so the two de- signs will complement one another in the multi-ship task groups of the future.
Hobart demonstrates capabilities
The first of Navy’s three new DDG’s, HMAS Hobart, completed a series of qualification trials in US waters last year, including inten- sive and complex use of the ship’s missile and gun systems. Prior to undertaking the tests, which were deemed to be a complete success, Hobart conducted a work-up period off Ha- waii with the US Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 3. DESRON 31 is routinely used to work up the US Navy’s (Aegis-equipped) Ticond- eroga and Arleigh Burke surface combatants prior to their deployment.
“One of the great things we managed to test successfully whilst Hobart was there
32 | April 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au


































































































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