Page 6 - Australian Defence Magazine March-April 2022

6 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
MARCH-APRIL 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
HMAS ADELAIDE GETS STUCK IN TONGA
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
HMAS Adelaide and 600 crew were strand- ed in Tonga in early February by a major electrical power failure while delivering humanitarian supplies following the 14 January volcanic eruption and tsunami.
The 27,000 tonne Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) arrived in Tonga on 26 Janu- ary with 23 COVID cases reported on board and the same day completed a con- tactless unload of 88 tonnes of supplies onto Vanu Wharf in Nuku’alofa, according to a 31 January Defence press release.
This stated that the ship was awaiting further requests from the government of Tonga - notwithstanding an earlier state- ment by the country’s Health Minister, Saia Piukala, that the Adelaide would leave immediately after delivering the supplies.
Meanwhile later the same day it was the ABC, not Defence, that disclosed that Adelaide had suffered a major electrical power outage and despite days of emer-
gency work, was still docked and still experiencing problems.
Neither the ABC
nor Defence said
when the outage oc-
curred, but given the ship’s inability to leave Tonga immediately after unloading, as re- quired, presumably this was on 26 January.
A subsequent Defence statement con- firmed that Adelaide had experienced a power failure. Backup power had been activated, essential functions such as re- frigeration and sanitation systems were up and running, food supplies had not been adversely affected and civilian specialists were on their way to Tonga to assess the affected systems.
Both LHDs were sporadically either un- available for service or subject to operating restrictions during 2017 due to irregulari-
ties within their azimuth propulsion pod systems.
These problems were later linked to the migration of oils across seals in the pro- pulsion systems.
Each ship is propelled by two Siemens Navantia 11-megawatt azimuth thrusters, each with an onboard electric motor driv- ing 4.5 metre thrust propellers. The elec- tricity is provided by a combined diesel and gas (CODAG) system.
ABOVE: HMAS Adelaide and 600 crew were stranded in Tonga in early February
ADF TO ACQUIRE MORE HELLFIRE MISSILES
<photo to come>
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
ON 20 December, the US Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) announced that the State Department has approved a possible sale of up to 800 Lockheed Martin AGM-114R2 Hellfire missiles to Australia, valued up to US$108 million ($A150 million).
Also included in the potential sale,
which would be enacted under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism, is tech- nical assistance, publications, spare parts, repair and return functions and storage.
“The proposed sale will improve Austra- lia’s capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing the Australian Army’s armed reconnaissance and anti-tank war- fare mission capabilities,” the DSCA said in a release to announce the potential contract.
The principal contractor will be Lock- heed Martin and the release notes that any offset agreement will need to be conduct- ed between the company and Defence.
The Australian Army already uses the AGM-114R missile on its Airbus Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (ARH) and the new variant is likely to become the baseline air to ground missile for the pro- posed Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters. The AGM-114R is also employed by the RAN on its Sikorsky MH- 60R Seahawk Naval Combat Helicopters.
The AGM-114R2 version of the Hellfire missile weighs 108 pounds (49 kg) and in- corporates a Height of Burst (HOB) sensor which improves fragmentation over the point of detonation.
LEFT: Boeing displayed an AH-64E Apache Guardian with Hellfire missiles at the 2017 Avalon Air Show
NIGEL PIITAWAY
DEFENCE