Page 7 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2021

JULY-AUGUST 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE 7
NAVAL GROUP WANTS
TO BUY $100 MILLION
OF TOOLS
NAVAL Group Australia has opened ex- pressions of interest for the purchase of $100 million worth of tools, equipment and manufactured items from local sup- pliers that will be used at the new Attack Class shipyard in Adelaide.
As construction progresses on the new and modern shipyard being built at Os- borne ahead of the building of a subma- rine hull qualification section in 2023, Naval Group Australia is asking local suppliers to deliver around 1000 different items to be used at the facility.
It will include the purchase of both ready-made and custom manufactured items from suppliers.
Released through Naval Group Austra- lia’s Industry Capability Network portal, the purchase plan is targeted to Australian suppliers and seeks the delivery of items ranging from hand and machine tools, transport trollies, office equipment, weld- ing machines, scaffolding, whiteboards, tanks and sumps and pumps, personal
protective equipment, workshop benches and a plasma cutter.
“Australia’s Future
Submarine Program is
on the cusp of an excit-
ing new phase, as a new
and modern new shipyard
rises from the ground and
preparations for construction begin,” Naval Group Australia Chief Executive Officer John Davis said. “The opportunity for Aus- tralian suppliers to get involved in this latest $100 million investment in tools and equip- ment for the shipyard is significant, as we continue growing the local supply chain.”
Naval Group global Chief Executive Officer Pierre Eric Pommellet said ‘sig- nificant progress’ was being made on the Attack Class project.
Naval Group says it is working closely with Australian Naval Infrastructure (ANI), which is responsible for the con- struction of the shipyard. Construction has
ABOVE: Naval Group needs to buy $100 million worth of tools to build the Attack Class.
reportedly advanced on the Platform Land- Based Test Facility, which is on schedule for hand-over to Naval Group Australia next year. With the fabrication hall and the main assembly hall, it is one of three major structures at Adelaide’s new Osborne sub- marine construction yard to be used in the delivery of the Attack Class vessels.
The Platform Land-Based Test Facility will be used to verify and refine the perfor- mance of critical Attack Class submarine propulsion systems. This will allow for the examination of the submarine’s main pro- pulsion train in a controlled environment before inclusion into the overall platform.
ZENITH AND DRONESHIELD COOPERATE ON COUNTER-DRONE CAPABILITIES
ZENITH AeroTech, a developer of heavy-lift tethered aerial vehicles (TAVs), is partner- ing with Sydney-based DroneShield to pro- vide enhanced drone detection capabilities, along with a range of countermeasures.
As part of the distribution agreement with DroneShield, Zenith AeroTech will incorporate DroneShield’s DroneSentry- C2TM command-and-control ecosystem into its own family of TAVs, along with an
LEFT: A demonstration of a Zenith TAV.
Echodyne EchoFlight radar, to counter drone or drone swarm attacks.
“By putting a detection ca- pability on a TAV, which typi- cally flies at 400 feet, you get
better range than if you were to have these systems on a pole or ground vehicle,” Kutlay Kaya, CEO of Zenith Aerotech, said. “Also, your alerts will be more accurate because, at elevation, you’ve eliminated clutter.”
Zenith AeroTech offers three differ- ent TAV platforms – Hexa, Quad 8, and Quadro – which can stay aloft for days us- ing the company’s Ground Power-Tether Management System, which converts 120
or 240-volt AC power from a generator (or another source) into high-voltage DC.
The platforms themselves can carry 10- 30 pounds (4.5-13.5 kg) of payload.
In addition to a capable drone-detection solution, the company will also be offering DroneShield’s soft kill measures for per- sonnel on the ground.
“Because we detect inbound drones from further away, we give personnel on the ground more time to jam them,” Kaya said. “We are already working with a cou- ple of federal agencies, and we anticipate broader adoption of this solution.”
“DroneShield’s deployment with Zenith takes our cutting edge command-and-con- trol ecosystem capabilities into the teth- ered drone domain, opening a new range of applications for our government end-us- ers,” DroneShield’s CEO Oleg Vornik said.
ZENITH
NAVAL GROUP