Page 20 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

20 DEFENCE BUSINESS RETROSPECTIVE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
2. Government considering programs was not as fast as needed. 3. DMO was not properly resourced post first and second pass. 4. Industry capacity was a concern.
5. The services needed to step up to get enablers like simu-
lation, training and sustainment properly resourced.
In 2009, another Avalon rolled around again. Lockheed Martin was keen to talk about how well JSF was going both in the US and Australia with the support of the New Air Combat Capability office under Air Chief Marshal John Harvey. The CAPE and GAO reports into the program were over inflated in their examination and conclusions of the performance of the program.
There was a good chance that BAE Systems could be a second source supplier for vertical tails (a massive invest- ment in titanium CNC machining for the company in SA that has now been delivering for years).
Budget and people power’ of Defence. He was also of the opinion that walking away from BAMS was a mistake but ‘ITARs and trade treaties with the US needed to be worked on by both sides’.
WHITE PAPER RIPPLES
The 2009 White Paper creates some ripples when it comes to geostrategic relationships. Defence thinkers Hugh White and Paul Dibb told an audience that while the document affirms places for the JSF, AWDs and submarines it gives no strategic reasoning for their existence; there was no stra- tegic imperative or possible future scenario that would ac- count for the future structure as outlined in the document. Also, why are Priority Industry Capabilities (PICs) classified at the moment? There is no acceptable excuse, according to the pair, when $560 billion was being spent in the coming decade and the level of transparency was ‘appalling’.
In 2010, Lockheed Martin took a group of Australian media to their facilities to look at production lines, talk technology and get an idea of the capability on offer. Of note was the joint training of Australian and USN operators and maintainers for the Romeo helicopter. The detail of the training pipeline was fascinating and how it was going to influence how the RAN trained their pilots in Australia once in service. JASSM and JSF are still really cool.
ADM’s 2010 Skilling Summit looked at how companies tapped into the vast array of government programs. The (unfortunately named) Defence Industry Innovation Cen- tre (DIIC) is a good place to start. The $21 million a year for Skilling Australia’s Defence Industry (SADI) is also a good option for support funding.
Jack Plenty of the Joint Decision Support Centre [JDSC – one component of a unique collaboration between DSTO and the Capability Development Group (CDG)] took the time to explain how the centre was important to providing background thinking to both Sea 1180 systems and concepts alongside priority modelling for JP 2060. The LHDs’ two ops rooms designs were influenced by the work done there.
By October 2010, 13 of the 22 contracted Tiger helicop- ters had been delivered with the balance to be delivered by the following year, according to Eurocopters’ Dominic Maudett, who said the night flying and over-water opera- tions would also be addressed by that point. At that point, 13 of the 46 MRHs had been delivered with IOC scheduled for 2012 with engineering solutions for the engine and floor issues to also be resolved. The company also confirmed a $2 billion AIC commitment between the two helicopter pro- grams once multiplier effects were accounted for.
Pacific 2010 saw UK admirals talking up the possibil- ity of Australia and Britain working together on an Anzac replacement solution. “It’s still a bit far off but we need to start thinking about it in more detail,” according to briefing notes with the UK Trade and Investment team.
Defence selected a new supplier in Lockheed Martin’s IS&GS, kicking off plans to save more than $400 million over a decade in data centre costs. It had chosen a facility outside the ACT, Defence’s chief technology officer Matt Yannopoulos said. Yannopoulos also spoke of a Five Eyes combat cloud as the way of the future at MilCIS that year.
“INFORMED DEBATE IS BASED ON INFORMED MEDIA. WE ACT AS A MIRROR TO WHAT IS HAPPENING. THAT REFLECTION IS NOT ALWAYS PRETTY”
Head of Airbus in Australia Dr Jens Goenneman updated on how the MRH90 program was progressing with seven aircraft to be assembled in Australia that year. Thought was being put towards re-winging the P-3 fleet to extend their life beyond 2018. All Tigers were going to be delivered by the end of 2010 under a re-baselined contract. Boeing was talking up the merits of the P-8 Poseidon and how Australia should be a co-operative partner in the program.
Northrop Grumman was all about un-crewed; FireScout, Global Hawk and BAMS are awesome and needed by the ADF along with their Raytheon radars.
Then-Defence Minister David Johnston said that while DMO is a great organisation that there was ‘a lot of fat in the system people-wise considering how the UK oper- ates’. He was hearing constant complaints from industry about the operation of the organisation in regards to ten- ders and their decision making process. He also pointed out that 8-12 conventional submarines at $100 billion over the life of the program is a ‘huge imposition on the
ABOVE: The first Super Hornet roll out in St Louis.