Page 25 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS 25 LEFT: Sweden’s HSMS Uppland at sea following
extensive midlife upgrade by Saab
funded by the same program within the overall redirec- tion cap of $34 million.
This preliminary expenditure pales into insignificance given the estimated $3.5 – $6.0 billion cost of the LOTE program as outlined in the 2020 Force Structure Plan and reconfirmed by Defence at Senate Estimates in June.
Notwithstanding the generous Defence-sized variance included in this estimate, the amounts involved underline the challenges faced by ASC in heading an undertaking well beyond the scope of its experience to date.
Looking ahead, a major LOTE support role as a strategic partner now appears increasingly likely for Collins’ design- er Saab (the Saab Group acquired Kockums in 2014).
SAAB AND DEFENCE
The submarine construction and design heritage derived from Kockums stretches back more than a century and includes recent and very relevant major upgrades to two Swedish Navy Gotland-class submarines, a further devel- opment of the Västergötland-class on which the slightly larger Collins’ design is based.
Kockums’ already fragile relations with ASC worsened after the Swedish company was acquired by German shipbuilder HDW in 1999. Its 49 per cent shareholding in ASC was then acquired by the Commonwealth, and the company effectively walked away from the Collins program amid litigation involv- ing intellectual property rights and technical disputes.
However, ASC and Defence subsequently gained full ac- cess to Collins IP under an enduring settlement reached in 2004, and continue to benefit from this.
Meanwhile ASC and Saab Australia have successfully collaborated on a $55 million contract to upgrade the well- regarded Saab Integrated Ship Control Management and Monitoring System (ISCMMS) equipping the Collins fleet, and installing the upgrade on two Collins-class boats.
The system was developed by Saab in the early 1990s to safely manage essential functions such as manoeuvring, power and life support.
Stage 1 saw Saab completing the design, software and hardware development for the updated ISCMMS and its installation by ASC on HMAS Collins and HMAS Waller. A separate $24.2 million Stage 2 contract was signed in 2018 for ASC to complete ISCMMS installation on the four other submarines, an exercise that is still underway.
The inter-company relationship was further enhanced in October 2019 when ASC was contracted to provide design services to Saab in support of the two A26-class next-gener- ation submarines being designed and built by Saab for the Swedish Navy.
In June, Defence was surprisingly positive in responding to Estimates questions on notice, referring to its continu- ing support for ASC in what it termed its ongoing engage- ment with Saab to progress LOTE, and denying that it had decided not to engage with the company as the designer of the Collins class.
package with the LOTE workscope, although Defence recently revealed that some undisclosed LOTE updates would be accorded lower priority than what it termed ‘the core work package’.
As well as building, sustaining and upgrading the Col- lins class, ASC is also Collins’ Design Authority. As such, it has been progressing system design for a potential LOTE for several years; a 33-strong team was already engaged on this in 2019.
As of March 2021, ASC had received $25 million reallocat- ed from the now-defunct Future Submarine program to fund a LOTE definition plan; LOTE signatures study; and LOTE business case, concept design and workforce capability devel- opment, Defence disclosed to Senate Estimates. The period over which the funding was provided was not disclosed.
LOTE scoping studies by industry on combat, sonar, and periscope systems together with an optronics busi- ness case and concept design development have also been
SAAB