Page 20 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

20 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE DISCLOSES DETAILS ON CONTESTABILITY DIVISION
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
DEFENCE’S Contestability Division has 39 staff in Maritime Analysis Branch, 30 staff in Air and Land Combat Branch, and 33 staff in Joint and Enabler Branch, the department disclosed in June Senate Esti- mates hearings.
The Division, established in February 2016, “provides Integrated Investment Program project teams with ‘arms-length’ assessment of their documentation as they proceed towards Investment Com- mittee consideration, and then to provide independent assurance of these capability projects for the Investment Committee,” Defence stated in response to a question on notice by Senator Kimberley Kitching.
More straightforwardly, the Federal Government Directory says the Division
“provides internal contestability across the entire capability life-cycle, from concept through to disposal, and ensure the capa- bility needs and requirements of Defence are aligned with strategy and resources.”
Contestability Division is part of the Strategy, Policy, and Industry Group, which points out that the Division involves decision-support, not decision-making.
There are no independent contractors in-house; all staff are Defence employees, or members of the ADF, who provide ad- vice to internal Defence committees.
Asked at what stages, gates and passes of a project the Division was involved, De- fence settled for “advice to internal Defence committees for key project approval stages.”
Advice provided in relation to the selec- tion of Naval Group for the now-scrapped Future Submarine project was “commer- cially sensitive and classified.”
So were all risks specifically relating to any major Defence acquisition. And so, therefore, was a copy of the advice provid- ed to CASG, Navy and Defence commit- tees on the Future Submarine program.
However, asked whether the Division had been involved in consideration of alternatives for the Future Submarine project – now revealed to be a nuclear
EWEN LEVICK | MELBOURNE
ONE of the announcements in the AUKUS agreement was confirmation that Australia is procuring Raytheon’s Tomahawk cruise missiles for the Hobart class destroyers.
The announcement was included in a ministerial statement, which also stated plans to acquire Joint Air-to-Surface Stand- off Missiles (Extended Range) for the F/A- 18 A/B Hornets and in future the F-35s.
Australia has operated the earlier AGM- 158A JASSM for a number of years but the release now indicates that the RAAF will now also acquire the AGM-158B-ER JASSM, previously only operated by the USAF.
In addition, the release included what appears to be recycled news around plans to procure Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) for the F/A-18F Super Hornet (and possibly P-8A Poseidons in future), and unnamed precision guided strike mis- siles for land forces.
In a joint statement, PM Scott Morrison, Minister for Defence Peter Dutton and Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne
TOMAHAWK CONFIRMED FOR HOBART CLASS
ABOVE: A US guided missile destroyer launches a Tomahawk cruise missile.
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