NSM, a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between Babcock Australia and UGL Infrastructure (UGL), was awarded the $300 million Anzac Major Fleet Unit Group Maintenance Contract in May last year. Two weeks later DMO asked if the critical Phase-In period could be cut from eight to five months.
This would enable the contract Operative Date to be brought forward to October, a deadline that was achieved but not without, as described by Babcock Deputy CEO Rear Admiral (Rtd) Bob Love, a lot of midnight hours filling in a lot of gaps.
“Clearly we didn’t want to turn the customer down so we had to rapidly increase our resource plan, which included sourcing some people early from the UK and Australia,” Love, a former Royal Navy Chief Naval Engineering Officer who was also in charge of all Royal Navy Ship Build and Maintenance including the iconic Carrier program, said.
“Whilst we were both pretty clear on the nuts and bolts we were bringing, aligning the procedures, methodologies and policies of the two companies, one effectively UK-based though now with a strong footprint in Australia and the other a traditional Australian operation, it all took a bit of time.”
Anzac maintenance periods were previously competed as individual work packages, several of which were carried out by UGL. Babcock was also able to tap in to the experience of the group’s NZ operation with RNZN Anzac maintenance and platform systems upgrades.
One year on and the JV has undertaken four Anzac maintenance periods utilising the Common User Facilities at Henderson on the west coast and two maintenance periods at Sydney’s Garden Island.
The emergency docking of HMAS Toowoomba at Henderson last November, prior to the ship’s deployment to the Middle East, was carried out stern first – a unique experience for most of those involved and a procedure approved by the Commonwealth within two days.
“This was to repair a shaft line oil leak and one of the reasons it was done stern first was to minimise the environmental risk involved with repairing such a leak,” Love explained to ADM.
“Toowoomba was fully stored ready for deployment and even had a helicopter on board. She was in a floating dock which obviously helped a little, but you generally need ships to be trimmed by the stern for alignment with the dock blocks and to get over the dock sill.
“So it’s pretty unusual, but it was a huge success and we got her out two days early which Navy was delighted with.”
Regenerating HMAS Stuart after 18 months in Extended Readiness at Fleet Base West involved a material condition assessment, a work specification, and more than 80,000 man hours over six months.
“Regenerating ships is a specialist task so we brought over a specialist from the UK. It all went very well; it’s about knowing where the tricky problems are likely to trip you up and a lot of us have got scar tissue about such things,” Love said.
On the east coast, NSM was tasked in June with replacing one of HMAS Ballarat’s two MTU TB83 diesels, normally a 13-week undertaking which Defence wanted to be completed in nine weeks.
“Then in addition to that they asked us to replace the other diesel as well, so we did both engines and some significant gearbox work as well, all within the nine weeks.”
The ability to accelerate such work places a heavy dependence on the Anzac supply chain, an area which had been a concern under the NSM commercial construct but one which Love says reflects in some cases 15 years’ experience and is operating “brilliantly”.
Within the JV, chair of the four-strong NSM board alternates annually and is currently held by Michael Wandmaker of UGL.
“We complement each other very well,” Love said. “UGL have got far and away the strongest links into the supply chain so I think it’s fair to say their accent is on blue collar whereas ours is on white collar. But neither is excluded from anything; we very much do it on the basis of the best person for the job.”
Updates
Updating the in-service logistics data and management requirements of the Anzac Asset Management Planning System (AMPS) is currently underway and on completion by Christmas should provide major benefits to the whole of the Anzac maintenance program.
“There’s nothing wrong with AMPS (although it is quite an old system) but it’s only as good as the data contained within it to ensure accurate and holistic configuration control,” Love commented.
“We were in a situation where several whole equipment were managed outside of AMPS previously. Updating the maintenance system data has been fundamental to our activity and the benefit of that will flow into future maintenance periods.”
The five-year NSM contract, potentially extendable to 10 years based on performance, was designed to provide predictability of work for industry and a more effective, value-for-money, sustainable outcome for the RAN.
Love points out that every maintenance period carried out to date has been completed successfully “which suggests we’re doing something right”.
Planning resources had been boosted, particularly in determining what could be done in parallel and in series, and further innovations would be introduced.
“I can think of any one of half a dozen things that I’d like to do to reduce the through-life costs of the platform and improve availability, but there’s always the issue of up front affordability which we recognise,” Love said to ADM.
“I introduced for example a new paint scheme for the (RN) Type 45 (destroyer) which we trialled on a Type 42 and were able to extend out to six years the period between bottom paintings.
“I also introduced a new set of dry couplings for the high pressure air systems that are very much the life of a warship. They’re expensive to install but the through life maintenance is almost zero. These are the sorts of things we’ll be looking to the future to introduce.”
ASMD planning
With six of the eight Anzacs awaiting their turn for the year-long anti-ship missile defence (ASMD) upgrade, NSM is discussing with the Commonwealth and the ASMD prime, BAE Systems, proposed changes in maintenance scheduling prior to and after the upgrade to maximise platform availability to the RAN. No significant differences are currently anticipated in the maintenance of pre and post-ASMD ships. However, the additional complexity added by the upgrade could create challenges, Love acknowledges.
“In the UK I was dealing with everything from Special Forces’ RHIBS to aircraft carriers and everything in between but one of our real successes was driving towards a common support solution long term.”
Love stresses the incentive for industry to do better that is offered by long-term contacts, with performance measured and possibly incentivised against Key Performance Indicators.
“If you’re competing for a nine-week project, why would you invest in more sophisticated techniques?” he asks.
“We’re looking at a laser mapping system to do the configuration control of the Anzac Class, a collaborative working environment and plenty of other initiatives which you would not contemplate if you’re just doing things piecemeal.
“A five-year contract or even better a 10-year contract allows you to invest in both process techniques, personnel and equipment which can deliver you a better product faster and cheaper.”
