Page 52 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

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52 DEFENCE IN THE NORTH
Australia’s Arafura, Armidale and Cape class patrol boat fleets as well as relations with Pacific partner nations taking deliv- ery of Guardian class patrol boats.
Under Plan Galileo, Defence intends to focus naval sustainment on Regional Maintenance Centres (RMCs), of which the first (RMC Cairns) is expected to become operational in early 2022 (a de- lay from an initially reported date of Q4 2021) and the second – RMC West at Henderson – in Q2, 2022. Defence says it anticipates a 200 per cent local fleet weight increase in Australia’s northeast and an 88 per cent increase in the north through the lifespan of the National Na- val Shipbuilding Enterprise.
The tender for RMC Cairns closed on 12 March 2021 and the tender for RMC West closed on 23 June, and the decision on the industry provider for these centres is due before the start of Q4 2021. Ac- cording to Defence, planning ‘continues’ for RMC North in Darwin and RMC East in Sydney.
“DEFENCE HAS RECENTLY NOTIFIED INDUSTRY OF ITS PREFERRED TENDERERS FOR RMC CAIRNS”
At the time of writing, ADM under- stands Defence has recently notified industry of its preferred tenderers for RMC Cairns and that those negotia- tions are on-going. The expected operat- ing date remains feasible given the first two Evolved Cape class ships have been delayed by six months following a ‘qual- ity issue’ found in aluminium sourced from China.
There are three existing shipyards in Cairns: Norship, which has a capacity of up to 400 tons; Austal’s Cairns Ser- vice Centre, which has a capacity of up to 1000 tons; and the 3000-ton Tropical Reef Shipyard (TRS), which completed a $10 million expansion last year.
The Plan Galileo model also includes the establishment of Capability Life Cy- cle Managers for naval platforms. Ray- theon is the manager for the Arafura class under Sea 1180, for which the pro- gram office was opened at Henderson, WA in March by Secretary for Defence Greg Moriarty. ■