Page 42 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

42
INFRASTRUCTURE
DEFENCE BASES
JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Defence has recognised this: the naval facilities in Ma- nus Island, on the north side of Papua New Guinea, began upgrade works in 2020 with main works commencing in 2021. According to Defence, these include operational fa- cilities for Guardian-class patrol boats and support for the RAN’s ANZAC class frigates.
Yet there have been regular calls in both Australian and US specialist naval media for both countries to do more with Manus, including dredging the harbour to support larger vessels, extending the wharves and building support infrastructure ashore. This would improve the resilience of Australia’s overall naval infrastructure estate and reduce the operational influence of a Chinese
presence in the South Pacific.
LEFT: Australia’s northern bases have underground command bunkers but many Defence installations remain vulnerable
modes, including capabilities to load multiple road trains, and facilities for on-site addition of additives to take civil grade jet fuel to military specification.
In other fuel works, Duratec is constructing the New Aviation Refuelling Facility at RAAF Tindal under a $110 million subcontract, which is due for completion in 2024. The award was announced in December 2021 and is being delivered as part of Defence’s Tindal redevelopment and as- sociated USFPI airfield and infrastructure works.
Construction of Darwin’s $400 million ship lift will be- gin later this year, according to former Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner (speaking to delegates at ADM’s Northern Australia Defence Summit on 5 April), with a preferred contractor to be named ‘mid-year’. The common user facility will be able to lift the RAN’s Arafura- class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and other military and civilian vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes.
Plan Galileo is also underway through the establishment of Regional Maintenance Centres, with the first operation- al in Cairns, an effort led by Rear Admiral Wendy Malcolm.
“We will be working with industry closely on this effort,” RADM Malcolm said during an industry update at the Sea Power 2022 conference, held in conjunction with the Indo- Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney.
Perhaps more could be done. Australia
has a number of remote offshore territo-
ries, notably Christmas Island and Nor-
folk Island. Both are near deep water,
though the former is so close that it relies
on floating moorings, while the latter is
hampered by frequent bad weather but
is close to the deep waters of the open
Pacific. Forward base infrastructure on
offshore territories like these could allow the RAN to better circumvent maritime chokepoints near Australia and the Solomon Islands, and support alternate lines of supply from the United States.
Finally, the government’s efforts to improve bilateral de- fence cooperation with Japan are also welcome. The Japan- Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement facilitates greater cooperative activities between the two militaries – and any further Australian access to bases in Japan would similarly improve Canberra’s responsiveness to contingencies in the Indo-Pacific, and infrastructural resilience.
INDUSTRY
It is one thing to think through the challenges on paper, and quite another to deliver the solutions.
Yet much is happening. Crowley Australia began con- struction in December on the new East Arm fuel facility near Darwin, which will host multiple fuel distribution
“And finally, we have plans underway for fit-for-purpose infrastructure that will match future sus- tainment needs, including planning for a large-vessel dry berth in Henderson, Western Australia,” RADM Malcolm said. “The berth will boost our naval ca- pability by letting us do shipbuilding and sustainment of larger vessels in the west.” Similarly, air infrastructure upgrade works continue, led by companies such as Lendlease (who feature in this edi- tion’s From the Source interview). Work at RAAF Tindal began in 2020 and will stretch through to 2027, including a runway extension that will enable US strategic bombers to operate from Australia, with other upgrade works happening concurrently at air bases around
the country.
The fact the Global Times specifically threatened Aus-
tralian military infrastructure unwittingly shows how im- portant that infrastructure is for the stability of the region. Infrastructure companies, therefore, are critical players in Australia’s efforts to harden its defences, and the contribution that infrastructure makes to the security of the Indo-Pacific. This includes Tier 1 companies such as Lendlease, but also the numerous sub-contractors that Tier 1 companies work with and invest in to deliver infrastructure across the continent (such as Duratec). Each relationship in this chain – between Defence and industry, and between indus- try and other levels of industry – is crucial to the realisation
of Australia’s defence capability ambitions. ■
“AUSTRALIAHASANUMBER OF REMOTE OFFSHORE TERRITORIES, NOTABLY CHRISTMAS ISLAND AND NORFOLKISLAND”
DEFENCE