The inaugural ADM Northern Australia Defence Summit in late October 2013 attracted 140 registered delegates and representatives from across Defence, government and industry.
The summit provided attendees with an overview of Defence’s presence in the NT and northern Western Australia and also the NT government’s plans for significant infrastructure developments in the region, to cope with an increased Defence presence as well as the burgeoning oil and gas sector.
Many of the presentations from both industry and Defence representatives spoke of their experiences working together and offered valuable advice to those local industries who are not already engaged with Defence. Future opportunities to work with the US Marine Corps, as their presence in the region grows, was also a common theme through several briefings
The first keynote address, from Air Commodore Ken Watson, Commander Northern Command (NORCOM) presented delegates with a snapshot of Defence’s footprint in the NT and outlined some of the challenges presented both by the environment and by the current high tempo of Operation Resolute.
AIRCDRE Watson noted that about ten percent of the ADF was located in the Northern Territory, largely in Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine. With the 1st Brigade and 1st Aviation Regiment at Robertson Barracks, Army has the largest footprint with around 3,740 personnel, followed by Air Force with 1,093 people at RAAF Darwin and Tindal and Navy with 692 personnel, largely operating the patrol boat fleet from HMAS Coonawarra.
“Seventy percent of the Armidale patrol boat fleet, 70 per cent of Army’s Main Battle Tanks and 77 per cent of its Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters, and one fifth of the RAAF’s air combat capability are based here in the Territory,” he said.
However there are significant challenges to Defence in the north, from the wet season which limits access to all land training areas for six months of the year due to cyclones and flooding, to an ageing estate.
Sustaining the Armidales
Ten of Navy’s 14 Armidale patrol boats are based in Darwin but the entire fleet is heavily engaged on border protection tasking in support of Operation Resolute.
Rear Admiral Mark Purcell, Head of DMO’s Maritime Systems Division told the summit that the four patrol boats based in Cairns have a long transit around Northern Australia to the patrol area, and as most operations are conducted from Christmas Island, even the Darwin boats are faced with a four day transit in each direction.
Coupled with the high tempo of Operation Resolute, this has seen the fleet suffer from early ageing issues which has affected availability.
“Patrol boat availability is really one of our key performance indicators and key outcomes, the key contract requirement is 3500 days of patrol boat availability each year,” RADM Purcell said.
“In terms of the 3,500 days it’s no secret that there have been some challenges. We did have a reduction in that requirement last year; we took a proposal both to Navy and Government to actually get a reduction in the required number of days and a reduction down to 3,100 days was approved. Really that was about trying to catch up on some of the maintenance back log, some of the class-wide issues that we see across the fleet.
Some of those issues are ongoing and we’re feeling quite challenged in terms of returning to that baseline of 3,500 days.”
RADM Purcell said that Armidale boats were being sent to Brisbane and Henderson for maintenance and repair and facilities as far away as Singapore have been used for emergency repairs, due to a lack of facilities in the Top End.
“A lack of infrastructure to support maintenance is causing us some difficulties. It is the lack of commercial infrastructure, commercial ship repair facilities, in the north that is really driving us to some of those other locations.”
RADM Purcell noted opportunities for the commercial ship repair sector in Darwin. “If Northern Australia would like to gather more business we’d certainly be interested in that,” he said.
Local industry opportunities
Presentations by Air Vice Marshal Neil Hart, Head of the Joint Capability Co-ordination Division and Peter Sims from the NT Government’s Department of Business outlined opportunities for local industry to engage with both the ADF and the US Marine Corps.
Eleven hundred Marines and four heavy lift helicopters are due to arrive in Darwin for a six month rotation in 2014 and this is due to grow to a full Marine Air Ground Task Force of 2,500 personnel and their equipment by 2017.
“There are plans underway to look at upgrades to RAAF Tindal, Curtain, Learmonth and Scherger to support some of these future training operations, as important logistics and mounting bases,” AVM Hart said. “Darwin is clearly the gateway to a lot of those logistics and support operations as we go forward and that’s probably where a lot of opportunities will come from.”
AVM Hart said that an $11 million contract has been awarded to Siztler for the provision of interim accommodation at Robertson Barracks to prepare for the 2014 USMC rotation. He also noted that most of the services support activities for the rotation will be channelled through existing Defence contracts.
“So if you have a relationship with a local provider/supplier then it’s them you should talk to. We will eventually be the beneficiaries of a deepening of those existing contracts and there will probably be some new opportunities as we go forward,” he told delegates.
Peter Sims provided details of a Defence Support Hub the NT Government is developing adjacent to Robertson Barracks.
“The key to growing the NT Defence support industry is to attract more defence-related contracts to the NT. With this as the main aim, the NT Government is developing a Defence Support Park industry hub to enable prime contractors and SMEs to cluster and align capabilities in support of Army,” he said.
