Page 6 - Australian Defence Magazine April-May 2021

6 EDITORIAL
APRIL-MAY 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
THE BIG QUESTIONS
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
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ASLEW of maritime announcements hit the streets as this edition of ADM was going to press; where, what, who, how and why questions are beginning to be answered. The Strategic Partnering Agreement (SPA) with Naval Group for the Attack class submarine was amended to enshrine a minimum 60 per cent AIC in the acquisition and build phases, not just sustainment (which tends to be AIC heavy anyway).
A down select to five teams for Navy’s uncrewed capability under Sea 129 Phase 5 was released with BAE Systems Austra- lia, Insitu Pacific, Northrop Grumman Australia, Raytheon Australia, and Tex- tron Systems Australia shortlisted for Block One. And the ABC broke the news that the Navy’s six new Evolved Cape class ships (an- nounced during the height of COVID last
year) are set to be delayed by up to four months thanks to poor qual- ity aluminium found during spot checks of shipments.
As the ABC pointed out at the time, “since 2016 Austal has run a joint venture in China with the Guangdong Jianglong Shipbuilding Company called Aulong Shipbuild- ing, which constructs “commercial passenger and non-military vessel opportunities”. Austal, which has a 40 per cent ownership stake in Aulong Shipbuilding, has licensed a number of its “proven, commercial aluminium vessel designs” for mar- keting through mainland China.”
ADM has also learned that a significant part of the Navy’s new comms capability under Sea 2273 will be supplied by Forti- net, a company owned by an American Chi- nese national. While Defence has refuted their involvement in the program, three independent industry sources say the com- pany is heavily involved in the pilot phase of the $600 million Fleet Information En- vironment program.
In 2019, Fortinet agreed to pay US$545,000 to settle allegations over its violation of the US’ False Claims Act. The security company acknowledged an episode
in which an employee tampered with prod- uct origin labels, which resulted in Chinese technology mislabelled as American being sold to the US military. There have also been calls in Taiwan to ban their products from government procurement given the com- pany’s links with the Chinese government.
I also understand that the company had a significant R&D team resident in China and transferred the entire operation to Canada to answer concerns about their alleged allegiance. I do wonder what due diligence has been done by Defence in this scenario in order to award them such a sensitive contract.
This month we touch on two of the big- gest capabilities Navy is looking to take to see in the coming decade; the Hunter class frigates and missiles. The Hunter class pro- gram is still in relatively early days but as always with any large and complex program, there are already different perspectives and experiences emerging from those involved in the program. ADM will be keeping a close eye on how the program is progressing.
The other topic of the day is missiles. Navy is not the only service to be investing in this space but they are the most well- funded, with the government earlier this year confirming another billion dollars on top of an already generous dispensation under the Integrated Investment Plan and the Force Structure Review of last year. Much of this capability is imported from the US or European partners. Very little is done here in Australia. Our A View from Canberra in October last year looked at some of the numbers in this domain. It will be interesting to see if some of the policy measures announced in the past 12 months translate into facilities and capa- bilities to change the status quo when it comes to local manufacture of missiles.
Lastly, on a personal note, many of you have seen my recent transformation thanks to taking part in The Leukaemia Founda- tion’s World’s Greatest Shave. A massive thank you to those who have supported me and my campaign (see the QR code above) is open until the end of the financial year. If I hit my goal I’ll shave it again! ■
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