Page 108 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

108 MAJOR PROJECTS REVIEW
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Several expected milestones during the course of 2022 include the long-awaited Land 400/3 decision and (if not al- ready announced by the time these words are read), and selec- tion of the successful bidder for Army Aviation’s Land 2097/4 (Light Special Forces Support Helicopter) project. Sixteen Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) light and rapidly-deploy- able helicopters are being acquired to support Special Opera- tions Command counter-terrorism activities. As ADM reported in our October issue, it is understood Airbus Australia Pacific’s bid centred on its H145M helicopter has been eliminated from the competition and the two remaining contenders (Babcock and Jet Aviation) have each proposed the Bell 429.
Looking further to the future, Australia will participate in the US Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) program under a memorandum of understanding signed in April. Australia will contribute US$70 million to the $907 million program to continue development of a surface-to-surface weapon with a range of between 70 and ‘over 400’ km.
The baseline Increment One PrSM weapon is being devel- oped to engage a variety of targets at ranges “beyond 400 km” and focusses on imprecisely located area and point targets. Un- der Increment 2 of the program already underway, the MoU covers incorporation of technology understood to include an enhanced seeker to allow surface ships and air-defence sys- tems to be engaged. This phase will also seek to increase the weapon’s lethality and deliver extended range capability.
The US Army is seeking to field PrSM by the end of 2023 and the ADF is looking to acquire a new, long-range, rocket artillery system by the mid-2020s. The first phase of the $0.6 to 0.9 billion Land 8113/1 (Long-Range Fires) program
is now in the Risk and Requirements Setting phase, and is considering a range of options, including PrSM.
SEA PROJECTS
The first major event in the Sea domain occurred just five days into the year, with the announcement that steel has been cut at Henderson for the fourth Arafura-class offshore patrol vessel (OPV), to be delivered under Sea 1180. The ves- sel is the second of 10 to be constructed at Henderson under a partnership between Luerssen Australia and Civmec.
Three days later, on 8 January, then-Defence Minis- ter Linda Reynolds announced that NUSHIP Supply, the first of two Auxiliary Oil Replenishment (AOR) vessels ac- quired under Sea 1654/3 had been accepted from Navan- tia at HMAS Stirling. The vessel arrived in Sydney – its new homeport – on 15 January and was commissioned as HMAS Supply on 10 April. The second vessel, HMAS Stal- wart, was commissioned in Sydney on 13 November.
On 28 January, Minister Reynolds announced a study into development of an Arafura-class OPV variant for new Mine Countermeasures and Survey Vessels under Sea 1905/1. “We are bringing forward the replacement of the Huon-class vessel from the 2030s to the mid-2020s,” she detailed. “We are also committed to constructing a new hy- drographic capability.”
BELOW: An Army Boxer CRV is transported to Cowley Beach Training Area in an Army LCM-8 during Exercise Sea Wader 2020
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