Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

timepass said:

Australia to boost maritime surveillance with acquisition of six MQ-4C Triton UASs.

Australia is to acquire six Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton maritime unmanned aerial systems (UASs), with the first platform scheduled to enter service in mid-2023, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on 26 June.

All six Tritons are planned to be fully operational by late 2025, Turnbull disclosed in a joint statement with Defence Minister Marise Payne and Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.

“The Triton will complement the surveillance role of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft through sustained operations at long ranges as well as being able to undertake a range of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks,” the statement said.

“Together, these aircraft will significantly enhance our anti-submarine warfare and maritime strike capability, as well as our search and rescue capability.”

Initial spending of AUD1.4 billion (USD1.04 billion) on Project Air 7000 Phase 1B will cover purchase of the first aircraft and AUD364 million will be spent on the construction of new operational and support facilities at Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base Edinburgh near Adelaide and RAAF base Tindal in the Northern Territory, as well as on initial ground support equipment, training, and spares.

Total programme cost was not disclosed but is expected to be around AUD7 billion.

The initial amount also includes an AUD200 million investment in the US Navy-led Triton co-operative development programme.

“This co-operative programme will strengthen our ability to develop advanced capability and conduct joint military operations”, the joint statement said.

Together with the P-8A Poseidon multimission maritime aircraft, the high-altitude, long-endurance Tritons will replace the RAAF’s fleet of 19 AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft that entered service in the mid-1980s. The last of the Orions will be retired in 2023.

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Jeff Head said:

I was surprised to see Australia pick the BAE Type 26 vessel, particularly when they already had significant experience and a logistical reason to go for the Spanish entry.

Either way, bu choosing AEGIS, and when including the 3 Hobart vessels, ultimately Australia will have 12 AEGIS vessels. Putting it right up there with the total numbers, and in fact ur[passing both Korea and Japan when looking at which Navy contains the most US AEGIS equipped vessels.

Japan will ultimately have eight and Korea will ultimately have six.

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ADF to trial ‘F90-SMASH’ assault rifle
Gabriel Dominguez, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
21 June 2018


The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is set to begin trialling the ‘F90-SMASH’ assault rifle later this year, according to a 21 June joint statement by Israel’s Smart Shooter and Thales Australia.

The weapon, which integrates one of Smart Shooter’s SMASH electro-optical fire control systems with Thales Australia’s EF88 (also known as F90, its export/commercial designation) assault rifle, “dramatically improves the soldier’s ability to hit targets accurately”, said the statement.

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mankyle said:

I'm Spanish so I have a bias against the Australian decision of choosing BAE. But... at the same time it is wise no to put all eggs in the same basket, as the old saying says.

The only thing I hope is that the new T26 don't have the same propulsion probles as the Daring class.
They are specifically designed as ASW ships but their propulsion configuration means they could have problems in hot climates (as the T45s) and that they will have to put more systems online for achieving flank speed...

The T26 was the riskier option. I hope it goes well but BAE in the latest years has had a couple of big flops

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Jura said:

Mar 18, 2018
related:
Australia’s second AWD destroyer completes Category 5 sea trials

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The Australian defense procurement office has accepted delivery of the Royal Australian Navy’s second Hobart-class air warfare destroyer NUSHIP Brisbane in a ceremony in Adelaide on Friday.

The Department of Defence Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group received the ship after it completed sea trials in May this year.

The delivery ceremony, attended by defense industry minister Christopher Pyne and Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, included the presentation of the ship’s bell rope and battle honor board to Brisbane’s commanding officer Commander Josh Wilson.

“Brisbane will enter into service later this year and with her sister ships, they will be the most potent warships ever operated by the Royal Australian Navy,” minister Pyne said.

“By using a combination of Australian and globally proven technologies, these highly capable warships will contribute directly to our maritime security and allow us to work even closer with our allies.”

“This is major step in the construction of the Brisbane, and she will be one of the most capable warships in the world, and it is a reflection of how Navy’s modern warfighting has evolved,” Vice Admiral Noonan said.

“She has the world’s first complete combat management system, which integrates powerful computers, radars and weapon systems to provide simultaneous defense against advanced air, surface and subsurface threats, allowing the Royal Australian Navy to think, fight and win.”

This is the final milestone for Brisbane, and she will transition from Adelaide to Sydney in September where she will be commissioned into service.

Brisbane successfully completed her second phase of sea trials off the coast of South Australia earlier this year. This phase of trials, known as Category 5 (CAT 5) sea acceptance trials, ran over a three week period, and included some 30 platform tests and 38 combat system tests, comprising of over 120 other test activities.

Hobart-class destroyers are built under an AU$9 billion program with ASC as primary shipbuilder and Spanish Navantia as the designer.

The ships are over 140 metres long, have a top speed of more than 28 knots, a range of about 5000 nautical miles and room for more than 200 crew members. They are equipped with the Aegis weapon system incorporating the AN/ SPY 1D(V) phased array radar in combination with the SM-2 missile.

The ships will provide an air defense system capable of engaging enemy aircraft and missiles at ranges in excess of 150 kilometers.

HMAS Hobart – the first ship in the class – and the yet to be commissioned Brisbane recently successfully demonstrated the

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, a system which expands the ships’ battlespace awareness by sharing sensor data among a network of CEC-equipped ships and aircraft.

The third ship in the class, NUSHIP Sydney, was launched at ASC’s Adelaide shipyard in May this year.

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The Royal Australian Navy has set out its force structure for the next 40 years with decisions taken on construction programs for new submarines, frigates and smaller offshore patrol vessels.

The government’s 2016 Defence White Paper decided what the service would need to meet the maritime threats of the future as well as develop a naval industrial base that can build complex warships and submarines. A 2017 shipbuilding plan devoted $66 billion for the work.

“In terms of the navy’s force structure, we recently made a decision about our future frigate and the big decisions over the past two years shows what the navy’s force structure will look like for the next 20 years,” chief of the RAN Vice Adm. Michael Noonan told USNI News. “Our combat management systems enterprise, Hunter-class, future submarines is all predicated on our force structure review of 2016 and ultimately the white paper that flowed from that.”

In June, the RAN selected the BAE Systems Type 26 design for its Project SEA 5000 Future Frigate program that will become the Hunter-class under a $25.8 billion program for nine ships to replace the existing ANZAC-class. The 8,800-ton Type 26 design beat competition from Spanish company Navantia’s F-100 variant and the Italian shipyard Fincantieri’s FREMM frigates. According to Noonan, construction at ASC Shipyard in South Australia by 2023 with the first ship delivered in 2029.

The eight ANZAC-class frigates completed an anti-ship missile defense upgrade in 2017 and are being supported under an initial five-year contract worth A$200 million awarded in January 2018 to Naval Ship Management (NSM), a joint venture between Babcock and UGL. It is part of the Warship Asset Management Agreement (WAMA) between NSM, BAE and Saab that will keep the frigates in service until 2031 from when they will begin to retire over the next decade.

Meanwhile the RAN is taking delivery of its three Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD) under Project SEA 4000, which are built to Navantia’s F-100 design. In July, ASC delivered the second vessel, Brisbane, following significant delays and cost increases with the first ship, Hobart. A review and re-baselining of AWD construction has improved management of the project. Hobart is starting it combat system qualification trials and the third and final ship Sydney will be delivered next year.

In January, the government also signed a contract with Lurssen to build 12 new offshore patrol vessels to its 1,700-ton OPV80 design under Project SEA 1180 worth $2.4 billion. This project will be the first of the new ship program to prove the RAN’s ability to transition from its existing force structure to its future platforms as the new ships will replace the existing Armidale-class patrol boats and two older Cape-class boats.

“Later this year we are going to cut steel on the new OPVs, so as we see the delivery of the first of the ships we will see an enhanced capability in that maritime security space, but at the same time I will be sustaining three vessel types as we transition over to the 12 new OPVs,” Noonan said.

“The OPVs will be a really good test for us in terms of understanding what that future looks like, delivering the training, sustainment, basing and all the support that goes around fielding and delivering the new capability at the same time as delivering that operational outcome. It needs to be seamless and it needs to be effective in terms of capability.”

The first two OPVs will be built by the Osborne Shipyard at ASC following the completion of the final AWD to fill the gap in construction before the start of the Future Frigate program. The remaining 10 ships will be built at the Henderson Marine Precinct in Western Australia with sub-contracts to be awarded to Austal and Forgacs shipyards for the work. This ensures a wider distribution of shipbuilding work outside of Southern Australia. This follows a low point in shipbuilding during 2016-17 following the delivery of two Canberra-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships. The pair of LHDs were built by Navantia in Spain and outfitted by BAE Systems in Williamstown, Victoria from 2008 to 2014.

The RAN’s largest ever-naval program however is the SEA 1000 Future Submarine project that will see 12 new diesel-electric attack submarines (SSKs) replace the existing six Collins-class boats for $35.88 billion. In April 2016, France’s Naval Group beat competition from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with its Barracuda Shortfin 1A design, which is a diesel-electric powered variant of its nuclear-powered Barracuda-class attack submarine (SSN).

There are elements of risk however with making the conversion from an SSN to an SSK propulsion system and installing the Mk48 Mod 7 CBASS torpedo and U.S. combat management system into a French-designed boat. Lockheed Martin is expected to the do the integration work. Construction will take place at ASC with construction beginning in the early 2020s and the first of class to be ready for trials by 2030-31.

In the air, the RAN’s maritime helicopter capability is provided by 24 Sikorsky MH-60Rs that were delivered from 2011 to 16 under the AIR 9000 Phase 8 project through a U.S. foreign military sales contract with Sikorsky. These replaced the ageing S-70B helicopters and can now deploy Hellfire missiles and the AN/AQS-22 dipping sonar. In terms of fixed-wing aircraft the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operates maritime patrol assets including new Boeing P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman Triton MQ-4C unmanned aerial vehicles from Northrop Grumman.

So far, the Royal Australian Air Force has received seven of the 12 P-8As expected under Project AIR 7000 Phase 2 and an initial operating capability was achieved in March 2018. Completion of deliveries is expected in 2022. The plans are to buy six Triton UAVs for $5.02 billion under Project AIR 7000 Phase 1B with the first to enter service in 2023 and the remainder by 2025. The costs include the establishment of the infrastructure and service and support. These assets will replace the existing Lockheed Martin AP-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft that will leave service from 2023.

n addition to Triton, the RAN is expected to procure further unmanned systems for its surface ships in a set of five phases stretching out to the mid-2020s. Minehunting capabilities will be procured under separate projects over the next four years that include AUVs and UUVs. Further procurement will follow with projects for shipborne surveillance and anti-submarine assets such as maritime tactical UAS, USVs and the sensors that will be installed on these platforms.

A program for a Maritime Tactical UAS for the new OPVs has already started with a request for information released in 2017 for under SEA 129 Phase 5. However delays mean the project wont continue until next year. In the meantime the RAN is operating both a fixed-wing ScanEagle and rotary wing S-100 Camcopter UAV to test both options.

After some testing times in ship procurement, the RAN is now on an upward curve of evolution that will see it develop into a more powerful force in the Indo-Pacific region that will possess 12 submarines, 8 frigates, three destroyers, 12 OPVs, two amphibious assault ships and associated MPAs, helicopters and unmanned assets. But it remains to be seen if Australia can afford them in the long-term and if the RAN has learned its lessons over the past decade to ensure that its programs for new platforms stay on course.

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Upgrades to

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Super Hornets of the

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(RAAF) are a possibility, the defense department in Canberra said, without suggesting that any such move is under consideration.

Asked whether Australia was looking at upgrading its Super Hornets to the U.S. Navy’s intended future standard, a spokesperson said the department “periodically upgrades its air combat fleet to meet capability and interoperability requirements, including potential upgrades to the F/A-18F Super Hornet and

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Growler fleets.”

The department is aware of the U.S. Navy’s upgrade plans for the Super Hornet strike fighter and Growler electronic-attack derivative, the spokesperson added.

In 2016 Canberra provisionally budgeted A$5-6 billion ($3.6-4.2 billion) to enhance Growlers over the following two decades. The RAAF has 11 aircraft of the type, from 12 ordered through the U.S. Navy in 2014. But there is no modification budget specifically for the 24 Super Hornets, which equip the RAAF’s strike squadron. The Super Hornets are in the Block II configuration.

The issue of whether to modify the Super Hornets arises in part because Australia likes to keep its U.S.-sourced equipment in the configuration that U.S. forces are using at any particular time. Australia does this to ensure interoperability with the U.S. and hold down support costs. A decision to shift the U.S. Navy Super Hornet fleet to the Block III configuration means Canberra will have to choose to make the same modifications or let its Super Hornets diverge from the U.S. standard.

Block III offers greater range, better data links and longer airframe life. The U.S. Navy will standardize on that configuration by modifying Block II Super Hornets and buying new Block III aircraft.

Perhaps reducing the importance of keeping in step with the U.S. configuration, the RAAF’s Super Hornets are due for replacement around 2030—though combat aircraft retirement dates usually come later than planned.

The department “continues to assess its future air combat capability requirements within the context of broader capability investment priorities,” the spokesperson said. “Options to replace the Super Hornets will be considered post-2020.” That timetable for a decision was set out in 2016.

Australia is buying 72

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to replace 71 F/A-18A/B Hornets, of which it received 75 in the 1980s and 1990s. More F-35s could replace the Super Hornets.

Regardless of when the Super Hornet force is retired, the RAAF’s Growlers are supposed to last until at least the second half of the 2030s. Growler deliveries to Australia began in 2015. One of the electronic-attack aircraft has been written off because of a fire in January that the department says was probably caused by a failure during takeoff in one of the Growler’s

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F414 engines.

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