Page 10 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019
P. 10

NAVAL GROUP
NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
Cobham begins strategic review
COBHAM has commenced a strategic re- view of Cobham Aviation Services (CAvS) in Australia ahead of a possible buyout.
CAvS is the largest provider of contract aviation services in Australia and the coun- try’s third largest aviation group after Qantas and Virgin, employing over 1,300 staff and operating more than 50 aircraft for custom- ers including Qantas, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Maritime Safety Au- thority and Chevron.
In 2018, CAvS delivered revenue of A$386 million.
CEO of Cobham David Lockwood
Cobham supports RAN’s Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS) Dash-8 aircraft.
said the review would be to decide how best to optimise value in the interests of the company and its stakeholders.
Cobham also announced that Ad- vent International Corporation intends to make an all cash offer to acquire the company.
CaVS contracts include aerial border surveillance and search-and-rescue opera- tions, closed charter (fly-in, fly-out) pas- senger and freight services to remote sites in support of mining, oil and gas projects, and outsourced passenger and freight ser- vices for Qantas.
Naval Group markets local torpedo countermeasures to RAN
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
NAVAL Group wants to produce its CAN- TO torpedo countermeasures in Australia should this technology be selected by the RAN, and says it has already identified sev- eral potential partner companies.
The Future Submarine design and con- struction partner said in a statement that it welcomed the opportunity to work with Australian industry to develop what it described as “this next generation de- fence technology”.
“Naval Group has already identified
various Australian companies in relation to CANTO countermeasures local manu- facturing and in-country maintenance”, the statement said. However, no partnerships or proposals had yet been formalised.
The French Navy has already selected the CANTO soft-kill decoy system for its sur- face combatant and nuclear-powered sub- marine fleets
Jean-Martin Hepp, Naval Group’s Mar- keting and Business Development Man- ager, pointed out that the French Navy has already selected the CANTO soft-kill decoy system for its surface combatant and nuclear-powered submarine fleets, includ-
Terma’s C-Guard Decoy Launching System with a CANTO Anti- Torpedo Decoy and a Chemring Launch Module - together designated NATO standard CANTO 130mm.
ing the first-of-type Barracuda-class attack submarine launched on 12 July.
CANTO capabilities and technology had already been discussed with the Future Submarine and Future Frigate programs, and in relation to Collins-class submarine and Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) up- grades, he told ADM.
Although there was no official require- ment in place at this time, “our vision is to provide one system that can be used on each platform”, he said, confirming that local manufacture would include both the effec- tors and the launch tubes.
Naval Group says CANTO is unique in the field of anti-torpedo defence, applying a ‘dilution/confusion’ concept that involves generating a high-level, 360-degree acoustic signal as soon as it enters the water, to jam the full frequency range of an attacking torpedo.
CANTO then creates and constantly renews hundreds of false targets, saturat- ing the torpedo’s sonar and data processing capability and ultimately dissipating all the weapon’s energy or fuel supply.
Naval Group says the compact tube launching system can be easily installed both outside the pressure hull on any submarine type, and on surface ships, where CANTO is also compatible with existing deck-mount- ed 130mm (mortar) decoy launchers – four of which equip each Hobart-class AWD.
10 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au


































































































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