Page 8 - Australian Defence Magazine March-April 2022

8 NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
MARCH-APRIL 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DUTTON AND CHIEF OF NAVY RESPOND TO FEARS AROUND HUNTER CLASS
of the Hunter-class, expected to be around 10,000 tonnes against the full displace- ment weight of the UK ships at about 8,800 tonnes, the Minister said.
Dutton confirmed there would be no fallback to a Plan B: “Late last year we looked at this project in great detail and we decided that we will proceed with it.”
Separately, Chief of Navy Mike Noonan said he remained “absolutely confident” that the Hunter-class would be world-leading.
A statement provided to ADM by Defence said it was prudent to identify risks along the Hunter-class design pathway, always working the ‘what ifs’ as the design matured.
“The risks identified as part of the En- gineering Team Assessment are part of an internal management tool used to focus the Defence team in managing the design process at a point in time,” the statement said. “Actions and solutions that address these risks are well underway.”
Despite the furore created by publica- tion of the classified report, BAE Systems Maritime Australia told ADM the com- pany had neither received nor seen a copy of the document: “Identifying risks is part of a normal design risk management pro- cess,” the company said.
ABOVE: A concept image of the Hunter-class frigates
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
PUBLICATION of a leaked engineering report criticising the anticipated performance of the RAN’s future Hunter-class frigates has drawn swift rebuttals from the Defence Minister, Defence, and the Chief of Navy.
Details of the classified ‘Engineering Team Assessment’ undertaken by Defence in November were published in The Aus- tralian on 1 February.
According to the newspaper, the as- sessment says the inclusion of the US Aegis combat system and the Australian- designed CEAFAR2 phased array radar in the UK Type 26 reference design had pushed the space, weight, power and cool-
ing margins of the Hunter-class to its lim- its, posing “significant potential risk”.
The changes had caused serious design issues that had cascaded through the pro- gram, the assessment warned.
It also reportedly criticised slow feed- back and “confusing and incoherent” pro- vision of data by shipbuilder BAE Systems Maritime Australia, and said the com- pany’s design process “does not adhere to normal system engineering practice”.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton noted that various program concerns had been raised “but they’re being remediated, they’re being addressed and this is, I sup- pose, the reality of a shipbuilding program”.
An engineering solution had been craft- ed relating to the full displacement weight
CHINESE VESSEL POINTS LASER AT ADF AIRCRAFT
DEFENCE has accused a Chinese navy vessel of shining a laser at an Australian aircraft. Defence confirmed in a statement that on 17 February the P-8A Poseidon detected a laser illuminating the aircraft while in flight over Australia’s northern approaches. The laser was detected as emanating from a People’s Liberation Army – Navy (PLA-N) vessel which, in company with an- other PLA-N ship, was sailing east through the Arafura Sea at the time of the incident. Both ships have since transited through
the Torres Strait and are in the Coral Sea. Defence called the event a “serious safe- ty incident” with “the potential to endan-
ger lives”.
“We strongly condemn unprofessional
and unsafe military conduct,” Defence continued. “These actions could have en- dangered the safety and lives of the ADF personnel.
“Such actions are not in keeping with the standards we expect of professional militaries.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison de- clared the incident “an act of intimida- tion” by China, “one that was unpro- voked, unwarranted.”
RIGHT:
A Headquarters Joint Operations Command storyboard depicting the movements of the Chinese ships north of Australia
“I thought it was a reckless and ir- responsible act,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
Morrison said Australia would be “mak- ing our views very clear” to the Chinese government through defence and diplo- matic channels.
DEFENCE
BAE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA