Page 33 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS AIR 7003 33
SkyGuardian Australia – was actively working on further enhancements to the aircraft and systems requested by De- fence. While the primes must accept these things as part of the cost of dealing with Defence, the SMEs suffer badly – often having made significant investment of their own in order to participate in projects where there is ultimately only one customer.
In a statement released once the news had leaked into the public domain, GA-ASI President David Alexander described the cancellation as “disappointing for a number of reasons.”
“Project Air 7003 offered a cost-effective, multi domain capability that is deeply relevant to Australia’s future strate- gic environment,” Alexander said. “Equally disappointing, our Team SkyGuardian Australia partner companies have invested in the start-up and future support for this capabil- ity in Australia and will lose considerable sovereign capabil- ity opportunities following this decision.”
LEFT: The $1.3 billion Air 7003 project intended to acquire at least twelve GA-ASI MQ-9B SkyGuardian remotely piloted aircraft
To say that the cancellation drew criticism from both in- side and outside industry would also be something of an understatement, with the Australian Strategic Policy In- stitute’s Executive Director Peter Jennings describing it as “mind-bogglingly stupid” and a source with a close under- standing of the program calling it “extremely short-sighted.”
In response to this and other criticism aired in the media – and, ADM understands, at the direction of the former Defence Minister’s Office – Defence took the bizarre step of trying to justify the decision to the public.
“The nature of warfare has changed, with cyber-attacks now commonly preceding or deployed in concert with other forms of military intervention, as seen right now in Ukraine. Defence’s REDSPICE project delivers a real in- crease in the potency and resilience of the Australian Sig- nal Directorate to block sophisticated cyber-attacks against our critical infrastructure, and strike back if needed. It will also ensure Australia’s cyber and intelligence capabilities remain resilient to attack,” the statement read.
“The Australian Government has made the hard decision to prioritise resources in response to the complex and chal- lenging strategic environment we face.
“While the MQ-9B SkyGuardian provides an excellent capability system, tough decisions are required to optimise the ADF force structure for the current strategic environ- ment. Defence continues to progress multiple strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities such as MQ-4C Triton and MC-55A Peregrine aircraft, Apache helicopters, MQ28-A Ghost Bat and alternative long-range precision strike options.”
Which then begs the obvious question: why did a decade or more of defence planning call for the Air 7003 capability in the first place?
Defence no doubt felt they had to further justify the choice by adding: “Defence regularly adjusts and repriori- tises the Integrated Investment Program to accommodate new and emerging Government priorities.”
A WASTED OPPORTUNITY?
With the ability to operate, maintain and support the Sky- Guardian locally, Australia would have arguably have be- come a regional support centre for similar aircraft deployed by US forces, or even other partners and allies in the future.
It is perhaps noteworthy that Japan’s Coast Guard has recently selected the MQ-9B, following successful flight trials carried out in 2020 and will introduce the capabil- ity later this year – just a two-year process. Together with reported interest from the Japan Self Defence Force, this could arguably see the regional centre of gravity move to Japan, at Australia’s loss.
The Australian Border Force was also reportedly closely studying the MQ-9B SeaGuardian – a variant of the Sky- Guardian optimised for littoral and maritime surveillance
GA-ASI