Page 41 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2019

further design work, build, and through- life upgrades.
“Design is a successive process, we have a rigorous process for ensuring we don’t pro- ceed further until we know that the design at a given point is balanced; then we do that again when we get to the next level of detail, and then we’ll do it again,” RADM Sammut commented to ADM.
A systems requirements review was sched- uled for the fourth quarter of 2019, a proce- dure undertaken at each stage of design “to make sure we’re making defensible decisions about the trade between capability and cost”.
The first sod at the construction yard at North Osborne was turned in December 2018 and work was now underway on the propulsion land-based test site and the com- bat system physical integration facility.
Detailed design of the remainder of the yard was being finalised and work on the construction halls, blast and paint workshop, warehousing and other fa- cilities would commence in the second quarter of 2020.
Construction of hull frames and sec- tions (cans) was likely to begin in 2023 with work on the rafts of
equipment that slide into
the cans starting two to three years after that.
“We’re talking about
the first submarine do-
ing contractor sea trials
in 2031 and Navy get-
ting that boat in 2032,”
RADM Sammut stated.
“What we have yet to do is
to decide on the final build rate – we’ll prob- ably eventually have three boats in various stages of build at any one time – and ensure that deliveries are at a rate in step with Navy’s ability to crew them.”
Hunter Class
A head contract signed by the Common- wealth on 16 December with BAE Systems Australia’s (BAES) new subsidiary ASC Shipbuilding provides the framework for the design and build of the RAN’s nine Hunter-class frigates.
In effect from 4 February, the contract incorporates allowable profit margins for the life of the $35 billion project, other terms and conditions, and detailed scope for the design and engineering work necessary to allow prototyping to com- mence in 2020 and to ensure steel is cut on the first ship in 2022. The scopes for the build of the ships are to be agreed and
added to the Head Contract in due course. Also included in the Head Contract was the peppercorn sale of ASC Shipbuilding to BAES through a Sovereign Capability Of- fer Deed (SCOD) under which Defence re- tains one golden share enabling it to ensure the company acts in the national security
interests of Australia.
Design work is now focusing on produc-
tionisation, including the changes to the UK’s Type 26 Global Combat Ship design necessitated by Australian-specific systems.
“BAES are beavering away on finishing some areas of the Type 26 design,” Paddy Fitzpatrick, CASG’s Assistant Secretary Ship Acquisition – Surface Combatants said to ADM. “Our major part is in getting ready the pieces that are going to change and from late this year starting to modify the drawings and the designs so they can be built at our very modern Osborne yard which will do things completely differently to BAES’ Goven yard in Scotland.
“Consistently when we bring people out from Scotland and they see what we’re building they get very envious,” Fitzpatrick commented.
rights in the event of a merger between Naval Group and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.
Rear Admiral Greg Sammut, head of the Future Submarine program in De- fence’s Capability and Sustainment Group (CASG), told ADM that issues from a con- cept studies review completed late last year had been satisfactorily resolved in January.
Design work was now focusing on the capability of the so-called critical systems for the 4,700-tonne Shortfin Barracuda – the main motor, diesel generators, switch- boards, batteries and weapons discharge system – and ensuring the correct balance in terms of the agreed requirements and weight, power generation, and margins for
A systems requirement review starting in July was described by Fitzpatrick as “basi- cally the first piece of ensuring that BAES understand what we want and we under- stand what they think we want”.
External assessors, half chosen by the Commonwealth and half by BAES, will talk to program personal over four weeks and identify areas of potential disjointedness for remedial action. An initial baseline review at the end of 2019 will link budget, schedule scope and fu- ture activities.
BAES will move into the new part of the Osborne South shipyard in July 2020 and focus initially on prototyping the yard’s facilities.
“I think we’ll probably build about four blocks and take somewhere between 22 and 24 months to train the staff, qualify the yard and ensure all the systems are work- ing, operational and fully reliable before we
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“An initial baseline review at the end of 2019 will link budget, schedule scope and future activities for the Hunter class.”
ASC