Page 26 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

26 DEFENCE BUSINESS RETROSPECTIVE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
to the way Army fights and this is only going to increase with new capabilities under Land 400 and 200.
“But we also need to make it simpler,” BRIG Vagg said to ADM. “We have to make sure there are less seams, less inter- faces that can be points of vulnerability in those networks.”
2020 starts off well but we all know how that turned out; COVID was the forcing function we didn’t want but have managed remarkedly well in a defence context. IT programs that would have ordinarily taken a decade to deliver were done in a matter of months. Government, Defence agen- cies and primes worked together to get money out the door faster to SMEs to keep them ticking over. The spirit of col- laboration was fantastic to see despite all the challenges. If nothing else, all our virtual presentation skills skyrocketed. There was also the consideration around travel; do I really need a day trip from Sydney to Adelaide for a two-hour meeting? Every week? Every fortnight? Really?
IN THE END
This has been the quickest of gallops through topics and stories that have stood out to me over the year. It mentions nothing of White Papers (2009, 2013, 2016 and the Clay- tons White Paper of 2020), reviews, ANAO reports, Budget proceedings (I’ve missed two Budget lock ups in 15 years).
Defence, like any industry, has its pros and cons, its swings and roundabouts. Its successes and failures have al- ways come down to people and process, both good and bad. My experience has been that the people are amazing and its processes are always a work in progress. On balance, I can’t imagine working anywhere else. ■
“MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN THAT THE PEOPLE ARE AMAZING AND ITS PROCESSES ARE ALWAYS A WORK IN PROGRESS”
It’s a work in progress.
The Naval Shipbuilding Industry Strategic Workforce Plan signed in Oc- tober 2019 established unprecedented collaboration between the Naval Ship- building College (NSC) and leading naval primes – ASC, BAE Systems Australia/ASC Shipbuilding, Luerssen Australia, and Naval Group Australia (NGA), together with Lockheed Mar- tin Australia and Saab Australia.
The four-step strategic workforce plan essentially addresses demand, supply, solutions and sus- tainment on a national basis. Ultimately, more than 15,000 personnel will be directly or indirectly employed in the na-
tional naval shipbuilding enterprise, the Plan forecasts. Recent media reports note that the National Shipbuild- ing Enterprise is struggling on a few fronts on almost every major program on the books for both acquisition and to a
lesser extent, sustainment.
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