Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jura said:

now noticed FIRST AIR WARFARE DESTROYER HOBART ACCEPTED BY DEFENCE

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Ship 01 Hobart, the first destroyer to have been completed under Project Sea 4000 (Air Warfare Destroyer), was handed over to the Navy today by builder the AWD Alliance in Adelaide.

The ship has recently completed a series of introduction into service trials in company with the Spanish Armada's Cristóbal Colón, built by Navantia using the same design.

Soon to be in service under the designation DDG (Destroyer Designated Guided), Hobart will be formally commissioned on 23rd September this year into the Royal Australian Navy and will be the 107th ship to join the fleet.

Alliance partner Raytheon Australia said the milestone also represented the achievement of 10 million hours of combat system integration work it had undertaken across various programs since its inception since 1999.

Lockheed Martin marked the occasion as a milestone for Australia joining the 'global Aegis fleet', with Australia now the sixth allied nation to operate the Aegis weapon system.

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Lockheed Martin Australia congratulates the Commonwealth of Australia for receiving its first Aegis-equipped ship, HOBART at a ceremony marking the occasion today in Adelaide.

The handover of HOBART to the Department of Defence marks a significant milestone for Australia – officially joining the Lockheed Martin global Aegis fleet alongside Japan, Spain, Norway, the Republic of Korea and the United States.

HOBART marks the 107th ship to join the fleet and the sixth Allied nation to benefit from Aegis capabilities.

“Lockheed Martin Australia is continuing to invest in growing Australia’s maritime workforce. We are proud of the superior warfighting capability of Aegis and stand ready to support the Commonwealth with future programs – such as Australia’s Future Frigates, said Vince Di Pietro, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin Australia.

“I am personally proud to see this next milestone achieved in capability, having had the privilege of ceremonially bringing the system to life in Moorestown while the Naval Attaché based in Washington DC,” continued Mr Di Pietro.

The Aegis Weapon System is a centralised, automated, command-and-control weapons control system that was designed as a total combat management system from detection to engagement. The Aegis Weapons System enables multi-mission capability, network centric warfare, cooperative engagement capability and growth to SM-6 and future capabilities.

The Hobart Class destroyers are being built under Australia’s SEA 4000 program, which will ultimately deliver three advanced multi-mission ships by the end of 2019. These destroyers will be Australia’s first ships to be equipped with Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Weapon System, which integrates commercial-off-the-shelf hardware technology and open architecture software into the combat system.

The next Aegis-enabled Ship scheduled for Australia, BRISBANE, continues to make good progress. A team of Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians have completed installation of the Aegis computer program aboard BRISBANE, Australia’s second Aegis-equipped Air Warfare Destroyer.

In support of the Commonwealth, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy are committed to the successful delivery of Australia’s Hobart Class Aegis Destroyers.

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Lethe said:

So there's something that has been bothering me for a while.

Australia plans to expand its fleet of submarines to 12 units. Australia also plans to operate 12 major surface combatants: three Hobart-class destroyers, and nine future frigates replacing the current eight ANZAC-class frigates.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? Is there any other navy in the world that operates as many submarines as it does surface combatants?

Of course different countries have different requirements. But a submarine is fundamentally an offensive tool to threaten enemy warships and merchant shipping. The basic strategic tasks for the RAN are to maintain the territorial integrity of Australia -- and submarines can certainly help with that by threatening enemy amphibs, aircraft carriers, and the like -- and to maintain the flow of trade, i.e. to protect merchant shipping. The latter calls for ASW and AAW surface escorts, not submarines.

At first glance Australia's force structure appears unbalanced, which invites one to consider exactly how the figure of twelve submarines was arrived at in the first place. Apparently it has subsequently been validated by committee, but so far as I know such an expansion -- a quite radical doubling of the existing submarine fleet -- was first aired as a thought-bubble by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and which subsequently found its way into the 2013 defence white paper where it became the new orthodoxy.

So the question is if a future combat inventory consisting of 50% submarines is really the correct path for Australia.

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Jura said:

Jan 7, 2017

and now
Spanish frigate Cristobal Colon arrives in Sydney

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Spanish Navy’s F-105 frigate ESPS Cristóbal Colón is on her way home after she spent the last four months stationed in Australia helping Royal Australian Navy sailors get acquainted with the Aegis combat system.

During her time embedded with the Royal Australian Navy fleet she welcomed more than 200 Australian sailors who will later form the ship’s company of the Aegis-equipped destroyer Hobart due to join the Australian fleet in 2017.

Cristóbal Colón, a sister ship to Australia’s three new Spanish-designed Hobart class guided missile destroyers, operates the state-of-the-art Aegis combat system as well as other sophisticated life support systems to be used in the Australian destroyers.

Cristóbal Colón’s liaison officer Lieutenant Christopher Thornton said the ship had provided for 2,500 individual training days at sea.

“Hobart sailors have been living aboard, working side by side with their Spanish counterparts and taking an active role in operating the ship,” he said.

As part of the sea familiarisation, officers and sailors from all ship departments from chefs to warfare officers have been completing familiarisation booklets that will add value to more structured classroom and simulator training.

“What we normally do is we provide training first and contextualise it afterwards, but with Cristóbal Colón we’re able to contextualise first and provide training afterwards,” Lieutenant Thornton said.

“In the case for combat system operators, 80 per cent of the combat system will be the same as in Hobart, so when the operators step on board they will be familiar with the consoles, and they will know what they’re looking at even if they haven’t done any courses yet.

The sea familiarisation hasn’t just been a benefit to Hobart’s ship’s company, with other Royal Australian Navy units and Cristóbal Colón herself capitalising on four months of combined training.

“An example of this is the 808 Squadron’s MRH90 helicopter night flying, which helped the aircrew gain night vision goggle certification but it also helped the ship gain valuable skills working with diverse elements of a foreign navy such as ourselves,” Lieutenant Thornton said.

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FORBIN said:

Submarines also numerous than surface combattants unusual... never see in history

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schenkus said:

I think the sowjet fleet had at times almost as many submarines as surface combattants - and during the war the Kriegsmarine concentrated on U boats.

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Jura said:

Saturday at 3:35 PM

now
Senate Estimates probes into LHD pod issues

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LOL! while the animation (the link in the last sentence of the above article) was loading, at first I thought my notebook was hacked (it liked blocked the browser window, put a 'progress bar' in the middle); here's what appeared after about two(?) minutes:

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A Defence spokesperson has responded to ADM questions regarding the outcome of propulsion pod trials conducted on LHD HMAS Canberra recently.

Both she and her sister HMAS Adelaide have been the subject of an intensive investigation after the latter vessel (currently in the Fleet Base East Captain Cook Graving Dock)suffered defects within its azimuth propulsion pod systems.

On 29th May, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett

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of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee that trials had been conducted on HMAS Canberra between 17th and 18th May 2017, and that the test results of oil samples taken during those trials would be available within two weeks from the date of the hearing.

The spokesperson's response follows:

“Subsequent to the work completed in HMAS Canberra alongside, a successful sea trials program was conducted with no demonstration of oil migration across the propulsion pod seals.

“Metal particulate levels in Canberra have been closely monitored throughout the sea trials and have not exceeded normal and acceptable levels. There is no evidence of excessive bearing loads in Canberra.

“The propulsion system has been recertified for seagoing operations with limited operational restriction in place until Canberra’s planned docking in Quarter 3 this year. This validates the disciplined and rigorous engineering approach to addressing propulsion pod issues.

“Defence is working closely with original equipment manufacturers BAE, Navantia and Siemens to identify the root causes.

“The forensic investigation surrounding the issues is ongoing.

“Following analysis and advice from industry partners, Navy is continuing planning for Canberra to participate in Exercise TALISMAN SABRE 17.”

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