Page 4 - Australian Defence Magazine Nov 2020

4 EDITORIAL
NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
HOW TO EAT ELEPHANTS
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
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THIS month we cover a wide range of topics, from space and satcoms through to sub- marine upgrades and our annual Budget coverage. Defence is moving ahead on so many fronts it can be hard to keep track of what’s happening, what’s planned and what’s beyond the horizon.
What we do know is that the topics we cover this month are the backbone of what the ADF is doing to become a truly 5th generation force; C4I and space/satcoms enable so much of what the ADF is being asked to do at home and further abroad.
The Australian Space Agency (ASA) is do- ing its best to drink from the fire hose of in- dustry, with its 30-person team being asked to respond to a range of industry questions and concerns for both support and regula-
local defence spending annually,” Hellyer says on P72 of our coverage. “That’s good news for Australian industry, and if we get the right stuff, it’s very good news for Aus- tralian military capability. But here’s the bad news. Getting there is going to be very difficult. And we don’t have a decade to get ready. The challenge starts now.”
With this in mind, I asked Defence about how their first and second pass ap- provals rate is going in 2020. With the current count sitting at 15 projects at the time of writing, it seems that not only do Defence and Industry have a challenge in front of them but the government does too in pushing programs through the system in a timely fashion. The highs of 60-70 program approvals per year that this gov- ernment has previously delivered will need to be regained if the program of work on the cards is to become a reality.
We have also taken the liberty of breaking down some of the Budget tables and informa- tion for readers when it comes to workforce, acquisitions and sustainment programs along with infrastructure programs. The scale of the work is staggering. As I have mentioned in past editorials, it is disappointing to see ICT programs not included in this data set. I am hopeful that CIOG programs will be bet- ter covered in future Budget papers given the greater focus on enterprise programs.
The COVID era has introduced a new way of operating for many businesses, re- gardless of their industry, when it comes to remote work and collaboration. As I mention in my Budget commentary, “some businesses have gone through a decade worth of IT upgrades to enable remote working in months rather than years. De- fence is not one of those businesses but has made small gains in this space.”
For many of us, we are but humble users; we turn on the system and expect it to work. We have become quite spoilt in our everyday lives with endless connectivity regardless of location or device; our Internet of Things coverage on P64 is evidence of this. COVID has seen that expectation solidified but we are still working out the best way to maintain security on this endless digital front. ■
“FOR MANY OF US, WE ARE BUT HUMBLE USERS; WE TURN ON THE SYSTEM AND EXPECT IT TO WORK.”
tion. Julian Kerr looks at some of the launch programs that Austra- lian industry and the emerging sovereign capability on P36.
Australia is truly growing a world class launch capacity with Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) set to partner for NASA’s first commercial launch outside the US. NASA will use the spaceport to launch sounding rockets which test in- struments used on sat-
ellites and spacecraft. The company is waiting for final sign off from the ASA to confirm the launch arrangements from their Arnhem land site in the NT. They are just one of the smart space companies working in this domain.
The policy updates from July this year have been backed by the release of the Budget last month, with the forward estimates period of the coming four years giving Defence and Defence Industry a challenge to spend the funds fast enough. ASPI’s Marcus Hellyer looks at how the elephant can be eaten.
“Those are two very large elephants [in acquisition and sustainment of major pro- grams], making a total of $25 billion in