Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

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from the newspaper article (so don't expect much :) as in
cavernous Combat Information Centre
LOL

Air Warfare Destroyer will be Launched on 23/5
AUSTRALIA’S most powerful warship will launch on Saturday — the first product of the $8 billion Adelaide-based air warfare destroyer program.
The three Hobart Class ships are the nation’s most complex and largest defence project. The first is already bristling with highly complex electronic warfare and radar systems.
Most significant is the Aegis system, a high-powered radar that can search, track and guide missiles simultaneously. It can track more than 100 targets at a range of more than 250 nautical miles.
Stepping aboard the 146.7m-long ship at ASC’s Osborne shipyard, where almost 1500 people are working on the Hobart Class construction, the project’s scale becomes apparent.
Banks of computer screens are covered up for secrecy in the cavernous Combat Information Centre, a networked war room which controls missile launches, torpedos and other weapons systems.

Highly skilled workers, lead by Ship One manager Steve Marsh and test and activation director Paul Normandale, until this week accessed the ship from a multistory tower which includes storage, offices and other facilities.
Excitement is building across the shipyard because the launch will signal a break from criticism of project delays of at least 30 months and a budget blowout of at least $600 million. These have been variously blamed on problems interpreting the ship’s Spanish design and other “first-of-class” issues.
“The guys are quite excited (about the launch). You can definitely feel the atmosphere. They’ve never seen a ship like this. They’ve got a lot of pride,” Mr Marsh said.
“They’ve come to ASC as a place of choice. Mitsubishi guys came here. Others came here in the middle of the mining boom — they’re really invested in what we’ve done.
“To see it with everything painted up and everything set to work — they’re seeing the fruit of their labours, everything they’ve been working on all these years.”

The destroyer this week was moved on giant hydraulic rollers to prepare for the launch, which involves lowering the 7000-tonne ship on a synchrolift — a giant platform which on Saturday will lower it into the water. This is a common user facility owned by the State Government.
The Hobart is 76 per cent complete, three years after the first steel was cut for the ship. The Mk45 five-inch gun was installed less than a fortnight ago.
After Saturday’s launch, the ship will be moored alongside an ASC dock, where Mr Normandale will lead testing of propulsion and combat systems ahead of sea trials starting in12-18 months in Gulf St Vincent and elsewhere.
The Hobart is scheduled to be handed over to the Navy in March, 2019, while delivery times for the other two ships, Brisbane and Sydney, are yet to be finalised.

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Jeff Head

General
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Hobart-01.jpg

Naval Today said:
The first of three new Australian air warfare destroyer, HMAS Hobart, is due for delivery tomorrow, May 23, 2015.

This marks a significant milestone for the Australian Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Alliance, made up of shipbuilder ASC, mission systems integrator Raytheon Australia and the Department of Defence, responsible for delivering the three highly capable warships to the Royal Australian Navy.

The AWD program is the most complex surface combatant construction project ever undertaken in Australia.

Another AEGIS DDG going into the water.

She's a beaut!

Way to go Down Under!
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Here's a better pic of the Hobart, now the day before launch with the pennant number painted on and ready to go to the party:


Hobart-02.jpg
Projected service entry dates for the three Hobart class, AEGIS Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD):

HMAS Hobart, D39, June 2017
HMAS Brisbane, D40, September 2018
HMAS Sydeny, D41, March 2020

Their characteristics are:

Displacement: 6,890 tons (full load)
Length: 483 ft.
Beam: 61 ft.
Draft: 17 ft.
Propulsion: CODOG
2 x &lm2500 gas turbines (23,500 hp each)
2 x 16V Bravo diesel engines (7,850 hp each)
Speed: 2+ knots
5,000+ nmiles at 18 knots
Crew: 202 (186 + 16 aircrew)
Sensros & Processors:
- AN/SPY-1D(V) S-Band Radar
- AN/SPQ-9B X-Band Pulse Doppler Radar
- Mark-99 fire Control with two continuous illuminators
- 2 x L-3
- X-Band Navigation Radar
- Ultra Electronics Series 2500 Electro-Optical director
- Ultra Electronics Sonar Suite
- Saqem VAMPIRE ID Search and Track System
- Rafael Toplite stabilized target acquisition
Electronics:
- ITT EDO Recon & Surveillance
- ES-3701 ESM Radar
- SwRI MBS-567A Communications
- Ultra Electronics Avalong mulit-pirpose digital receiver
- Jenkins Engineering Low-band receiver
Decoys:
- 4 x Nulka decoy launchers
- 4 x 6 tube multipurpose decpoy launchers
Armament:
- 48 cell Mk41 VLS for Standard 2 and ESSM missiles
- 2 x 4 HArpoon SSM launchers
- 1 x Mark 45 4.5 inch gun
- 2 x 25mm M242 aBUshmaster Typhoon mounts
- 1 x 20mm Phalanx CIWS
- 2 x 2 tube Mark 32 mod 9 Torpedo launcher
Aircraft: Hanger and pad for one MH-60R Seahwak helicopter
 
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Jeff Head

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1staussie-F35-Flight-01.jpg

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Luke AFB said:
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- A pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force made history May 14, by flying the first RAAF F-35A Lightning II sortie at Luke Air Force Base.

RAAF Maj. Andrew Jackson, the squadron leader for the 61st Fighter Squadron and the first F-35 senior national representative at Luke, was the first Australian pilot to fly the fifth-generation fighter.

Although this was another milestone for the RAAF, for Jackson, this flight was also about building his experience and competence in the aircraft over the short term.

"My focus is on representing the RAAF as a valuable partner in the F-35 enterprise," Jackson said. "Hopefully I can contribute in some way to the work that's already taken place to help ensure a smooth transition from the A-18 to the F-35A. It's very exciting to finally be at Luke with the 61st Fighter Squadron and to get to fly an RAAF F-35A. Whilst I'm told that all the F-35s are the same, it's awesome to finally go flying in a jet that has 'Skippy' painted on the side."

With the sortie completed, RAAF personnel can forge ahead and advance in their mission at Luke.

"This marks a major milestone for partner operations here at Luke, as the next phase of operations," said RAAF Maj. Nathan Draper, a 61st Aircraft Maintenance Unit participant maintenance liaison officer. "We have been on the ground supporting the mission with our jets and now one of our instructor pilots will also contribute to this team in one of our aircraft."

The RAAF's future goals include not only helping train future F-35 pilots and gaining experience in flying it, but understanding what goes into maintaining the aircraft.

"The future is promising with the F-35," Draper said. "With each new update to the ground based support systems comes enhanced capability and supportability features. We will continue to define and refine the baseline configuration and move toward initial operating capability for each of the partners and services."

With the anticipated sortie accomplished Jackson said he is glad to be at Luke.

"We're looking forward to training at Luke for a number of reasons -- it's been a long way to move with my family, but the phenomenal hospitality and generosity afforded to us by both the base and local community has made this move easy," Jackson said. "Combine that with the amazing weather, airspace and proud history of partner training at Luke and you have an unbeatable combination. There's nowhere that myself and the other Australian pilots would rather be training on the F-35A, than (at) Luke Air Force Base."
 

asif iqbal

Lieutenant General
Aussies will have a force to reckon with

Two x LHD and 3 x DDG I wonder if they will add BMD to these units

A marine expeditionary unit coming together and two flat decks is no small force
 

Blackstone

Brigadier
Australia has been balancing on knife edge between its ally/security guarantor and its biggest trade partner. The latest article by Sam Roggeveen in The Interpreter shows just how hard it is for Australia to balance US and China. Australia too is living in interesting times.

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that, despite last week's
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when Pentagon official David Shear 'misspoke' about US Air Force's B-1 bombers being placed in Australia, the bombers are probably coming to Australia anyway.

I think that's right. As
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, the US–Australia Force Posture Agreement hammered out in 2014 ensured that:

...US Air Force rotations through northern Australia should increase, assuming the force posture agreement clears the way for the expansion of runways and ramp space at RAAF Learmonth and RAAF Tindal. Australians should expect to see more USAF long-range bombers, transport aircraft, and air-to-air refuelers operating from those locations.

Sheridan criticises Shear for giving the impression that the B-1s would be based in Australia. But, says Sheridan, 'There are no American forces based in Australia. A range of American forces rotate in and out of northern Australia, which is not the same as being based there.'

We're in the realm of wordplay here. The US-Australia Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap is not really a 'base', but it is a permanent facility run by Australia and various US spy agencies. And while the US Marine presence in Darwin is described as a 'rotation', with Marines cycling through on short training deployments, it is a permanent arrangement between the two governments. As
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, this is in fact the culmination of a long-standing desire by Australian governments to entrench the US military presence in Australia.

Sheridan then writes:

The Abbott government has no in-principle objection to the presence of B-1 bombers, and many well-informed observers regard their eventual presence in Australia as all but inevitable. The problems the government had with the Shear testimony were about the implication of basing planes in Australia, and connecting the rotations explicitly to China.

Again, I think that's right. The reason the PM came out within hours of the story breaking to deny Shear's testimony was because of the damage it might do to the China relationship.

But this is revealing of our national dilemma, which
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on the same opinion page today: we have a major trading partner (China) whose strategic interests are increasingly at odds with those of our major ally. And increasingly, we're being forced to choose between them. Yet if Sheridan's account is right, the Government seems to believe that we can get around this dilemma by simply not acknowledging it publicly. We can host US strategic bombers, Sheridan seems to be saying, just as long as we don't say publicly that it's China-related.

Does that sound at all convincing to you? No, me neither.
 

delft

Brigadier
We discussed in another thread the improbability of a war over Taiwan. Any large scale war is extremely dangerous and damaging and the Australian government should consider that encouraging US military build up near China cannot be in the interest of Australia.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
This so-called dilemma is no such thing.

What does this security arrangement do to benefit Australia? Nothing.

Its more like Australia being obliged to buy expensive American military hardware it doesn't much need, and Australian service personnel being called upon to fight and die in far away American wars of choice.

Increasingly, China is being shoehorned into the new great danger Australia needs American military might to defend against, but China does not threaten Australian security one bit.

The only way Australia might end up in China's crosshairs is if it allows itself to play host to bases that America uses to harm Chinese national security.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
This so-called dilemma is no such thing.

What does this security arrangement do to benefit Australia? Nothing.

Its more like Australia being obliged to buy expensive American military hardware it doesn't much need, and Australian service personnel being called upon to fight and die in far away American wars of choice.

Increasingly, China is being shoehorned into the new great danger Australia needs American military might to defend against, but China does not threaten Australian security one bit.

The only way Australia might end up in China's crosshairs is if it allows itself to play host to bases that America uses to harm Chinese national security.

Well it's more about what this relatively small possible arrangement says about the overall Australia policy to China... and at this stage I'm not even sure if the Australians have figured out where they want to stand.

In other words, how China figures into Australia's security needs really depends on what Australia's security needs are in the first place and that's what I suspect is being debated within the Aus govt. I think it would be a bit presumptuous of us to say that China doesn't threaten Australian security, simply because we don't know what Australian security needs entail.


----

also, can we stop creating a new thread for every new article or video of interest? Blackstone, you've created four new threads in the last few days in the strategy defence thread... how about making a new thread for an overall topic surrounding geopolitics, rather than a new thread for each individual article?
 
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