The Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith and the Minister for Defence Materiel, Jason Clare last week released the terms of reference for the Review of the Sustainment of Australia’s Collins Class submarines, to be led by Mr John Coles, an independent expert from BMT Defence Services in the UK.
Mr Coles’ terms of reference are to examine, report and provide recommendations on:
• The optimal commercial arrangements for conduct of submarine sustainment;
• Appropriate performance goals for sustainment activity, based on world’s best practice efficiency and effectiveness benchmarks;
• Options for demonstrating value for money in sustainment activity and the supply chain;
• Opportunities for improvements in management arrangements between ASC, DMO and the Navy to achieve efficiencies;
• Future infrastructure needs to support the submarine sustainment activity;
• Measures to be implemented by DMO and the Navy to ensure that ASC is able to operate under a performance-based contract; and
• The subsequent priorities for ASC and Defence reform to effect greatest improvement, given time, budget and system constraints.
An interim report will be provided to Government by December 2011 and a final report by April 2012