Page 66 - Australian Defence Magazine Aug 2019
P. 66

FROM THE SOURCE
KATHERINE ZIESING | ADELAIDE
Naval Group is leading the design and build of the largest and most expensive Defence acquisition in Australia’s history – the $50 billion Future Submarine Program. ADM Managing Editor Katherine Ziesing caught up with local CEO John Davis to run through how the program is progressing and what lies ahead.
John Davis
CEO and Future Submarine Program Director at Naval Group Australia
We’re also well underway obviously with the critical systems or the “Top 5” pieces of equipment:
• mainelectricmotor
• mainDCswitchboards
• mainstoragebatteries
• weaponsdischargesystems
• dieselgenerators.
At the end of April we have issued over 2,700 requests for information to industry involving over 1,100 companies, and of that 1,100 only 46 were overseas suppliers. So the ramp up in procurement is incredibly quick and despite all the contra views, is very much focused on Australian industry.
More than 1,200 companies have regis- tered interest in our work packages through ICN Gateway, which is going well, and more than 1,400 companies have attended industry briefings on the Attack class. This demonstrates the ongoing strong interest that industry has, in being part of such an exciting program.
We’re also up and running with the ship- yard. The first sod was turned at the shipyard site in December 2018 and we have conclud- ed the early design activities for the initial fa- cility. We’re going through the final rounds of infrastructure functional requirements and we’ll deliver an update to ANI (Austra- lian National Infrastructure, formerly part of ASC) and then ANI will work with its managing contractor, Laing O’Rourke, to finalise the design. This will open up anoth- er work front to start the build process for the shipyard facilities at Osborne.
The construction of the substantive parts of the shipyard will commence in 2020 and that will progress out, in stages and will run over a number of concurrent years, to about 2023.
As part of the SDC we transferred a whole swathe of work scope from France to Australia. The procurement activity for the whole of the program is now being run from Australia by Naval Group Australia.
Naval Group Australian engineers have moved to France to work and learn side- by-side with their French counterparts. They will undertake specific submarine design training to develop an intimate understanding of the know-how and know-why for the Future Submarines. We’ve just sent another 17 people to France and we’ll send just under 20 in the new year, another fairly significant step up. It’s no longer about mobilisation, this is true program execution.
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1983
JOHN DAVIS
PROFILE
CEO and Future Submarine Program Director, Naval Group Australia.
Campaign Lead Sea 5000 Program, Raytheon Australia/ AWD Alliance
General Manager Strategic Operations, AWD Alliance
ADM: Now that the SPA (Strategic Part- nering Agreement) has been signed, what are the next steps for both the Australian and French parts of the business? What tangibles can you point to for industry partners?
DAVIS: The next step is the Submarine Design Contract (SDC), which is the first contract work scope to be fully executed under the Strategic Partnering Agree- ment (SPA). We’ve moved from SPA to the SDC very quickly; we actually com-
AWD Alliance Combat
System Director, Raytheon menced on 1 March.
Australia
Executive Director, BMT
The SDC marks a major transition from the design mobilisation contract. The scope Defence Services for this phase of work includes the ongo- ing maturation of the Attack Class design as it progresses into the next design phase known as the Definition phase and estab- lishing Naval Group Australia to the point now where we’re really prosecuting the de-
Strategic Business Development Manager, BMT Defence Services
Technical Design Manager/ Deputy General Manager, Submarine Support Management Group
sign proper.
As we start to progress through the SDC
we’ll be opening up more and more work fronts. We will commence sourcing over 100 critical and main equipment catego- ries that will contribute to the submarine design solution, which is a significant step forward. This will mark significant op- portunity for Australian industry. We’ve talked a lot to industry about the Future Submarine procurement process but now it’s underway in earnest.
Operations Manager, Submarine Support Management Group
Project Manager, Systems Interface Coordinating Agency
UK Ministry of Defence, Procurement Executive
66 | August 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au


































































































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