Page 13 - Williams Foundation Integrated Force Design Seminar

Designing the Integrated Force: How to Define and Meet the Challenge?

CDRE Spedding, RANR, DG Navy Program Support and Infrastructure provided the Navy perspective. His
presentation like that of BG Wainwright focused on the kinds of outcomes which Navy needed to achieve both
to leverage and to contribute to enhanced joint warfighting effects.

The Australian Navy has moved from a perspective of providing single naval assets to work alongside core
allies, notably the US Navy, to providing task forces to meet government objectives. The focus upon building
and operating task forces inherently requires integration at the task force level; and leveraging the task force
to support government objectives inherently requires broader level of ADF and government integration within
combat and political objectives.

The shift to a continuous shipbuilding strategy provides a significant foundation for how navy will address its
modernization needs within a joint strategic framework. Naval platforms have both static and dynamic
elements. The static elements will be grounded in fundamental ship design and maritime operating demand.
The dynamic elements, combat systems and weapons, will be software driven and inherently open to
integration with the joint force.
And the adoption of the Ship Zero concept provides an opportunity to provide a test bed for continuous
development of the dynamic systems carried onboard maritime platforms.

In my interview with Chief of Navy last year, he discussed the Ship Zero concept as a foundational element in
the way ahead for the Navy to provide for more rapid combat innovations.

Question: Wedgetail shows an interesting model, namely having the combat squadron next door to the Systems
Program Office.

This facilitates a good working relationship and enhances software refresh as well.

You have something like this in mind for your ship building approach.

Could you discuss that approach?

Vice Admiral Barrett: “We do and are implementing it in our new Offshore Patrol Vessel program. And with our
‘ship zero’ concept we are looking to integrate the various elements of operations, upgrades, training and
maintenance within a common centre and work flow to get greater readiness rates and to enhance an effective
modernization process as well.

“We are reworking our relationship with industry because their effectiveness is a key part of the deterrence
process. If I have six submarines alongside the wharf because I can’t get them away, they are no longer lethal
and they are no longer a deterrent force.

“Again, as an example we have dramatically improved availability by building maintenance towers alongside the
submarine—rather than the previous way that it was done, where people arrived into that one gangway under the
submarine then dispersed to do their maintenance work—is an example of how we need to work.

http://www.sldinfo.com/vice-admiral-barrett-on-the-way-ahead-of-the-australian-navy-design-the-force-for-
decisive-and-distributed-lethality/

How do you fight with the force you have while you pursue development
of a more integrated force?

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