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The next Defence Capability Plan, due to be released towards the middle of 2015 is expected to shed light on the future ground based air defence (GBAD) capability requirements of the ADF.

However at the present time there is little indication of what these requirements might look like and therefore what the budget of Project Land 19 Phase 7B might be.

In the current DCP, Land 19/7B is either a replacement or enhancement of the current capabilities and includes defence against missiles and therefore is a ground based air and missile defence (GBAMD) project. Thus the likely target set might include everything from small unmanned vehicles up to fast-moving cruise missiles

Current capability
The current capability resides within Army’s 16th Air Land Regiment (ALR), based at Woodside near Adelaide. It was established in January 2012, following the amalgamation of 1st Ground Liaison Group into 1st Air Ground Operations (AGO) Battery, and the Regiment was renamed from 16th Air Defence Regiment to reflect its expanded capabilities.

Ground based air defence is provided by the 110th Air Defence Battery, which uses the Lockheed Martin PSTAR-ER (portable surveillance and target acquisition radar – extended range) and Saab RBS-70 very short range air defence (VSHORAD) missile system.

Following a rapid acquisition project to provide counter-rocket, artillery and mortar/missile (C-RAM) protection for the Australian base at Tarin Kot, the Saab Giraffe agile multi-beam (AMB) radar system was acquired and is now operated in Australia (along with the light weight counter mortar radar – LCMR) by the 111th C-RAM battery.

The role of the Giraffe AMB in Australia post-Afghanistan is not altogether clear and at the present time it does not form a part of the GBAD capability and this raises an interesting question.

In the absence of any detailed requirements for Land 19/7B it is impossible to predict what the capability acquired might be but, given the Giraffe AMB and RBS-70 are already in service with 16 ALR, could a ‘refresh’ of the missile system (Saab is already marketing a next-generation RBS-70 which uses much of the existing equipment) and a networked GAMB combination fulfil the requirements at a relatively modest cost?

Project Land 19 Phase 7B
Listed in the 2009 DCP as an ACAT II project, with an acquisition cost of around one billion dollars, Land 19/7B was originally slated for First Pass approval between 2012 and 2014 with an IOC between 2016 and 2018.

By the time the 2012 DCP had been released, first pass and IOC had slipped to 2016-18 and 2020-22 respectively.

The broad requirements, according to the latest DCP, are to ‘sense, manage and mitigate the weapon and sensor effects of fived and rotary-wing platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles, stand-off weapons, and counter-rocket, artillery and mortar/missile.’

The mitigation of the various sensor and weapons effects are intended to be scalable from ‘sense and warn’ through to actual interception and will be managed by a command, control, communications, computing and intelligence (C4I) system and networked in either sovereign or coalition operations.

The PSTAR radar currently used is arguably facing obsolescence issues and even if the project elects to enhance current capabilities this system, at least, will have to be replaced. Saab naturally points out that its Giraffe/RBS-70 combination is already providing GBAD protection for other military forces around the world and, given the fact that both are already in service here in Australia, a potential solution could be right under the nose of DMO.

There is an amount of work to be done to upgrade Australia’s GAMB radars to allow them to operate in a wider networked environment (and more units acquired, as Australia has just three at the present time) and the RBS-70 missile system will need upgrading to next generation status, but the company says that, compared to acquiring new equipment this solution will provide an effective level of capability for a very modest cost.

The devil will be in the detail of course and whether this ‘effective level of capability’ will meet the detailed requirements (hopefully) set out in the next DCP remains to be seen. In the meantime, any idea which provides enhanced capability for modest outlay must surely be worthy of consideration?

Giraffe agile multi-beam radar
As noted, Australia bought two GAMB radar systems for force protection duties in Afghanistan, with a third delivered to Australia to support development and training. Following their withdrawal from Tarin Kot, the two operational radars were refurbished in Sweden by Saab and delivered to Australia in May.

After a period of testing at RAAF Edinburgh they will be used in various exercises including the Army’s major land manoeuvre serial, Exercise Hamel.

The three radars are capable of being networked together and are capable of producing a combined local air picture but, because they were acquired under a rapid acquisition process for a single purpose, they do not have Link 11 or Link 16 capability.

According to Lennart Steen, Saab’s senior production manager for Surface Radar Solutions, this represents no technical challenge as the Link 11B and Link 16 integration has already been done for other customers.

It would however need to be integrated into sovereign Command & Control and communications systems.

“There’s a lot of functionality that hasn’t been used yet,” Steen explained. “Giraffe AMB is capable of doing so much more than C-RAM.”

Giraffe AMB can be truck-mounted and the Australian radars were delivered to Tarin Kot aboard RAAF C-17s, proving their deploy-ability, Steen said.

During operations in Afghanistan the GAMB capability displayed 98 per cent reliability and Steen points out that no fatalities to rocket attack occurred on Giraffe’s watch.

The Giraffe antenna is mounted on a retractable mast, 12 metres high and the antenna has a 360-degree scan. According to Saab, it can detect small fighter aircraft at a range of 60km and missiles at 30km.

Saab has also integrated other missile systems with GAMB, including Raytheon’s I-Hawk and Diehl’s IRIS-T.

RBS-70NG
Saab launched the next-generation RBS-70 missile system two years ago and uses several parts common to the existing system used by 16 ALR, including the missiles themselves.

The major change is to the sight, which has an integrated thermal imager, an auto-tracking system to improve aiming and guidance, automatic after action video capability and 3D visual cueing.

This latter feature receives data from the surveillance radar and the cues are provided to the operator’s sight, allowing him to find the target without actually seeing it first.

Saab officials claim that during recent comparative trials in India, RBS-70NG operators were getting their shot away before their competitors systems had even acquired the target. It also claims the system can be set up (from being carried in a soldier’s backpack to being ready to fire) in 45 seconds.

The missiles are the third-generation Mk.2 with an effective range of 7km and at heights up to 4000 metres, and the fourth-generation Bolide, capable of knocking down targets at distances up to 8km and altitudes up to 5000 metres. Both of these missiles are in use with 16 ALR and no modifications are necessary for use with the next generation system.

The RBS-70NG also incorporates an IFF interrogator system as standard equipment, which was optional on the earlier version.

Besides the replacement of the existing sight the missile stand and accessories box (which provides storage space for batteries, headsets etc) will require modification.

One of the important improvements over the existing RBS-70 system is the work Saab is currently undertaking to integrate it with land vehicles. This means that, if selected for Land 19/7B, it could be integrated with Army’s present and future vehicles such as Thales’ Hawkei, delivering a tactical, mobile GBAD to the ADF.

So why should Australia buy RBS-70?
“Supportability, because Australia is already an RBS-70 user,” explained Jessica Rylander, an engineer with Saab’s Dynamics branch. “And the difference from an operator’s perspective is the increased Pk (kill probability).”

Saab says this is because the RBS-70NG sight enhances the capability of the Bolide missile by reducing tracking noise through the auto tracking function, increasing manoeuvrability and improving performance against small targets at maximum range.

“The RBS-70NG and Giraffe AMB solution is designed to address targets such as small UAVs, cruise missiles and helicopters in the 2025 space,” concluded Saab Asia-Pacific business development manager – Land, Mat Jones.

“Giraffe AMB has a long future in the ADF and we hope it will be a key component of Phase 7B, GAMB is a key enabler for the ADF and will provide a cost-effective solution.

“We are investing a lot of time, effort and money into GBAD, to ensure the architecture is future-proofed. The RBS-70NG/GAMB combination could provide a step change in capability, within the existing budget.”

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