Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS RETROSPECTIVE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
“Going forward into Tranche 2, the risk reduction activity between First and Second Pass has been looking at the key risks that relate to platform in- tegration, integration between the BMS and fire control systems for armoured ve- hicles. Some work has also been done to enhance the dismounted, ‘man-wearable’ version of the BMS in terms of reducing the size, weight and power requirements, because we always want our soldiers to have to carry less,” explained Colonel James Murray, the Director of Enabling Systems Development for Army, to ADM. “They are the primary risks; the rest of it is in understanding the art of the pos- sible, to refine our requirements.”
Subsequent ANAO reports into the program and the decision this year to cease service of the Elbit BMS has seen Army’s digitisation journey stutter.
ADM’s reporting in 2016 also looked at the contenders for the future frigate. FREMMs from Italy and France, Arleigh Burke from the US, and BAE’s Global Combat Ship were all undergoing a Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP – the tender for when you’re not having a tender). This CEP was not to be confused with the CEPs for either the OPVs or Future Submarine. Over 100,000 tonnes of ships and boats were up for grabs as Navy undertook their biggest recapitalisation program since WWII.
brain was fizzing.
I visited RAAF Richmond to have a
look at how loadmasters training was being supported and modernised with support from CAE. RAAFies in uniform explained what they do and how they do it with a mix of desktop trainers, part task trainers and practical with CAE staff talking about lessons learned from their Canadian experience on C130Js. The teamwork on
show was great.
Another Avalon in 2017! JSF was still cool, not here yet,
lots of good work by Australian industry. Still my favourite trade show.
In the first week of March 2017, the RAN’s first AWD, HMAS Hobart, completed sea acceptance trials. The 21- day series of trials marked the first time Hobart’s full suite of platform and combat systems were tested togeth- er as a complete mission system in the lead up to delivery in June that year.
Land Forces in 2017 also saw an increase of activity around vehicles and tanks; Land 400 big news and the
tanks and Hercules recovery vehicles were looking at up- grades or replacements as thinking was still taking shape.
2018 saw JORN under new management with BAE Sys- tems taking over from Lockheed Martin, with a $1.2 billion upgrade program taking the system from its analogue roots to maintain its world-leading capability digitally.
At the end of that year, the US Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin finalized an US$11.5 billion con- tract for 141 F-35 aircraft at the lowest per aircraft price in program history on the same day that an F-35B crashed in South Carolina. The new F-35A unit price is $89.2 million, which is a 5.4 per cent reduction from the previous $94.3 million cost for an F-35A in Low-Rate Initial Production Lot 10. They’re still cool and we’re still getting them.
RECENT HISTORY
January 2019 saw the first industry briefing for the ADF’s Lethality program. Formerly known by their individual pro- gram names, Land 159 (Small Arms Replacement) and Land 4108 (Direct Fire Support Weapons Replacement), the two have now been combined under the ‘Lethality’ program um- brella. For the delivery of the Lethality program, the Com- monwealth intended to establish a long-term contract, or number of contracts, for the provision of weapons systems and services via one or more Supplier Engagement Models (SEMs). Spoiler: NIOA was chosen as their partner of choice.
Army Innovation Day that year is all about Army being more digitally savvy.
“We’re very excited about a number of systems here to sup- port connectedness, resiliency and agile security,” Brigadier Richard Vagg, Director General of Systems and Integration in Army Headquarters said. “They are mainly SMEs here today so we can really go after some smart local systems.”
Brigadier Vagg explained that the network is now central
ABOVE: Back when Lockheed Martin was working with Patria in the US.
In 2016, Matt Jones of Saab spent four hours with my good self and a white board explaining what Ground Based Air Defence looks like; concepts, technology, what 116 ALR actually does and how, what al- lies do in this domain, what the legacy programs and technologies were and how they fitted together, and what Land 19 Phase 7 could look like. My
“WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE LESS SEAMS, LESS INTERFACES THAT CAN BE POINTS OF VULNERABILITY”