Page 37 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FEATURE 37
Navy’s Hunter frigate program has been
in the news of late, particularly with regard to construction delays and growth margin concerns. ADM Senior Correspondent Julian Kerr recently spoke with Managing Director of BAE Systems Maritime Australia Craig Lockhart to find out more.
ALTHOUGH the start of construction of the first Hunter-class frigate has been delayed for up to 18 months, the head of the build team that will deliver nine of the Future Frigates to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is confident that prog- ress with shipyard facilities, prototyping procedures and design augurs well for the future.
With more than 30 years industry experience and lead- ership in the civil nuclear, submarine and surface ship sectors, Craig Lockhart is well placed to update on prog- ress towards the construction phase of the $45 billion Sea 5000 project.
Particularly so, given a previous role as Managing Di- rector of Babcock International’s Naval Marine in the UK involved more than 6,000 staff across two naval dockyards, two naval bases, two shipbuilding yards and various tech- nology and engineering centres.
ADM: What is the current status of the Osborne Naval Shipyard?
LOCKHART: It’s settling down very well. We gained access late last year, five months later than expected because of the COVID-induced late arrival of equipment from Europe, but that time has already been largely recovered. We cut first steel in December for the prototyping phase that is testing systems, processes, facilities, and the competencies
“WE’VE BEEN PRETTY HONEST ABOUT THE CHALLENGES IN TERMS OF MAINTAINING SHIP MARGINS AND WEIGHT, AS WE’VE SOUGHT TO UNDERSTAND THE KEY CHANGES”
of a workforce now approaching the 1,300 mark. While we had no input to the design of the yard, we are now accommodating that generic design within our own strategy for a highly productive advanced digital ship- yard. As the operator of the yard, we’re maximising our ability to build good ships through our production line process. In terms of the primary manufacturing elements, that’s all complete. We’re working now to im- plement a digital environment. Most
of our workers will access work orders, risk assessments, critical design information and safety instructions through handhelds and tablets.
The Steel Fabrication and Unit Assembly Hall at Os- borne – Building 20 – is where we’re starting to build the prototyping blocks, starting with units. The first unit of the first block 16 is currently making its way down what we call the pulse line stations. Each station adds complexity to what was initially flat steel plate as this is moved up the shop floor on jig wagons – first assembly, then structures, then robotics delivering high quality welds with zero de- fects, then the creation of block units. The focus has been on doing it safely, doing it well, and then concentrating on doing it efficiently, so we’re now measuring productivity as we move from station to station every four weeks. We keep the same teams on the same stations, it’s far easier for us to measure the effectiveness of that sort of process flow.
LEFT: The Future Frigate is extensively modified from the Type 26 reference design.