Page 41 - Australian Defence Magazine May-June 2020

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DEFENCE BUSINESS VIEW FROM CANBERRA 41
The Collins submarines project achieved 70 per cent. In 2016, Sean Costello, then head of DCNS, now Naval Group, said 90 per cent of new sub build activities would be per- formed in Australia.
In mid-February, Davis told The Australian newspaper Naval Group was unsure whether the value of contracts to local firms would reach 50 per cent. Others have suggested local content could be as low as 30 per cent. You can see the trajectory here.
Naval Group Executive Vice President for the Future Submarine Program, Jean-Michel Billig subsequently clarified to a Senate committee that at least 60 per cent of Naval Group contract value would be spent in Australia.
But it surely doesn’t follow that every single one of them is up to the job, able to deliver repeatedly to the exacting standards demanded for a defence contract, nor capable of meeting all the requirements for certification, security and much more.
PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS
Your correspondent had a most enlightening talk with a rep- resentative from one of the primes whose job is to visit busi- nesses aspiring to be part of one of the big project. The ver- dict: some are really good, with the right application, others could do it but some, to put it kindly, were pretty ordinary.
They need not always be that way. One of the objectives of all this is to upskill Australian industry and Davis’ comments could as easily have been interpreted as indicating that’s what
has to happen.
Readers may remember that at the start
of the Collins project, some complex bow sections were constructed in Sweden be- cause it was thought our standards of fab- rication weren’t yet acceptable.
Subsequently it was determined that the Swedish welding wasn’t up to our standards and needed to be redone.
One of the successes of Australia’s defence industry is par- ticipation in the F-35 global supply chain, manufacturing complex aircraft components, not just for Australian aircraft but for every aircraft sold worldwide.
None of the 50 plus companies engaged in F-35 work got there just because they flew the Aussie flag. They got there with plenty of hard work, dedication and investment in im- proving their capability, reducing costs and lifting workforce skills over a period of years.
It won’t be any different for companies aspiring to work on the Attack-class submarine project or any number of pro- grams under the national shipbuilding plan. ■
At this early stage of the project, it’s quite clear no-one really has the foggiest idea and may not until a full accounting is completed, perhaps after the last subma- rine is in the water.
As well as the spectre of diminishing Australian Industry Capability (AIC), Davis touched another sore spot, sug- gesting Australian firms might not be up to the job.
“We didn’t know the Australian market
before we joined the program,” he said.
“Now we have a much deeper insight, and we recognise there is a lot more work to be done than we anticipated.”
Shipbuilders, Naval Group and BAE Systems, have invited Aussie firms to step forward, conducting industry roadshows to explain what they need. As of last October more than 700 had expressed an interest and why wouldn’t they, considering the allure of potential contracts.
OPPOSITE: Australian industry is up to the challenge if given time and skills to meet demand.
“MONEY SPENT ABROAD ACQUIRES ADVANCED DEFENCE CAPABILITY, BUT WITHOUT THE VISIBLE BENEFIT OF A DEFENCE DOLLAR SPENT AT FRED SMITH’S FOUNDRY IN OUTER BARCOO.”
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