Maintenance & Upgrades: ASLAV and Abrams | ADM August 2011
Tom Muir | Canberra
That GDLSA was the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for both the ASLAV and the Abrams tank, and had been responsible for their support under previous arrangements, was good reason for the company to again raise its collective hand for this task and reinforce its footprint in this country. Another was the unspoken possibility that GDLSA, through exceptional performance, might eventually win through life support (TLS) for all of this particular family of vehicles, and others. For there is an anomaly in the way these vehicles are maintained.
When Jason Clare, Minister for Defence Materiel, announced in early June that GDLSA would provide support for the Army’s fleet of Abrams Tanks, Light Armoured Vehicles and Hercules Recovery Vehicles for at least the next five years, what he meant was that the company would provide, as required, spares and engineering support only for the whole of the AFV fleet.
However that other aspect of the TLS contract, which is concerned with normal vehicle maintenance for the same family of vehicles, excluded those based at military establishments in Victoria. This is because BAE Systems Australia, under arrangements with Joint Logistics Command, is responsible for maintaining these and other military vehicles under DIDS (logistics) and Albury-Wodonga Military Area contracts.
AFV support
Headquartered in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, GDLSA has been supporting the Army’s ASLAVs, and more latterly the M1A1 Abrams and the M88A2 Hercules, through annual repair & overhaul and engineering contracts. As OEM for the AFVs the company also provides retrofit and modification support as required. For normal vehicle maintenance the company provides trained personnel to owner units, eg 1 Armd and 2 CAV Regts in Darwin and 2/14 LHR in Brisbane, under trained labour supply arrangements.
M1A1 and M88A2 have had all spares and some maintenance support provided through FMS while ASLAVs have had spares provided by GDLSA and alternative suppliers engaged by the DMO.
While deep level maintenance for the ASLAV drive train has been conducted through the company’s Darwin facility, for heavy grade repair they are transported to GDLSA’s major workshop at Pooraka near Adelaide. In cases of battle-damage, ASLAVs are returned from the MEAO to BAE Systems at Bandiana and passed on to GDLSA where heavy repair is sought.
A new era of AFV support?
However a new era of support for the Army’s AFVs was anticipated in the release of the request for tender (RFT) for Land 112 (ASLAV) and Land 907 (Tank). It has been reported that DMO’s Land Systems Division had taken three years to get the right balance of contracted requirements and the necessary measures that would dictate performance based incentives for industry. At the time it seems Defence’s preference was to deal with one or two prime vendors, allowing Land Systems to concentrate on contract delivery and management of the solution and leaving the prime vendors to worry about the physical delivery of services and support against the contract.
The RFT was finally released in late 2008, seeking tenders for TLS for the ASLAV family of vehicles (FOV) and/or the M1A1 Abrams FOV and the M88A2 Hercules Recovery FOV. The ASLAV FOV comprised 257 vehicles across seven types and variants with the existing support model based on a combination of Commonwealth and outsourced resources. The RFT noted that the Commonwealth was considering replacing all or part of the existing support model.
It also noted that the M1A1 and the M88A2 were a new FOV comprising 59 and seven vehicles respectively, both vehicles based in the Northern Territory (Darwin) and Victoria (Bandiana and Puckapunyal). No support model was in place for the M1A1 and M88A2 other than interim arrangements through FMS – this despite expressions of interest sought in late 2005 for the provision of through life support in Australia for both vehicle types.
The requirements for ASLAV support were straightforward and did not differ significantly from previous arrangements. They were along the lines of the contractor performing all activities necessary to provide support for the Mission System in accordance with the contract and the relevant statement of work (SOW) including: Through life support management, including surge / labour augmentation support; engineering; maintenance and supply support; support resources; and quality management.
For the M1A1 Abrams maintenance support was on similar lines with military personnel providing light and medium maintenance for Land Command units with a Joint Logistics Command contract providing this support at Training Command units.
Contractors would provide heavy grade maintenance with the preferred option being for one prime contractor to manage the maintenance support for the entire tank capability. However, if this was not possible or practical, several contractors would be used. Supply support was to be provided through a combination of extant commercial agreements, FMS agreements and OEM support for the MAN transporter.
But the overall TLS tender requirements were onerous and included various statements of work covering management plans, engineering technical data (including many and varied ITAR hurdles especially in relation to the Abrams MBT), TLS master schedule, ASLAV contract data requirements, and management plans for contract engineering local and international.
In the event GDLSA’s response was based on three separate bids. One for the ASLAV TLS, one for the M1A1 TLS and a third for the combined TLS for ASLAV and M1A1. It proposed a five-year, performance-based support contract, with greater incentives for improved efficiencies and performance than are found in current contracts. With the Australian Government’s interest in looking for over $1 billion in savings from more efficient operations under its Defence Strategic Reform Program, the proposal fell on receptive ears and in May 2010 the Government announced GDLSA as the preferred bidder “paving the way for the creation of 42 highly skilled maintenance jobs in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin.”
It was also announced that the DMO was to shortly commence negotiations with GDLSA, with a view to having a contract in place by October 2010. However the negotiations were protracted due to the complexities of a contract based on three separate RFT responses and contract award was not announced until June this year 2011.
The new AFV TLS contract
According to Defence the TLS services will deliver enhanced fleet availability of the Army’s ASLAV wheeled armoured fighting vehicles, M1A1 Abrams tanks, and M88A2 Heavy Recovery vehicles. Ongoing spare parts, repairs, maintenance and engineering tasks will be ordered as required through this integrated support contract. It also provides the opportunity for stronger relationships with the Commonwealth and local industry.
Overall the TLS contract uses new business process that have been collectively developed by DMO and GDLS-A to provide a faster, cheaper and more efficient way of supporting these fleets and increasing their availability. Under the new contract GDLSA have the opportunity to supply all of the spares for all the fleets where they can demonstrate value for money to DMO for the materials being sought. This is a greater provision of service than previously required.
The company is contracted to provide an agreed number of services and augmentation labour support for all fleets at the owner units outside the Victorian region and, in a new task, is contracted to provide surge labour support for operational and exigency requirements when and where defined by the Commonwealth. It is also contracted to provide engineering and technical support for all the fleets. This is an increase in scope over that previously available and now includes the M1A1 and M88A2.
GDLSA is to provide program management services under a performance base regime providing a faster, and cheaper value for money service that will increase fleet availability under the TLS contract. The contract will change the mechanisms and business processes between the Commonwealth and General Dynamics in Australia to improve efficiency, reduce costs and promote value.
The contract also includes implementation of a performance framework which contributes toward the Commonwealth Strategic Reform Program (SRP). This provides the basis for awarding up to 15, one-year contract extensions based on performance.
Gary Stewart, Managing Director of GDLSA, says the performance-based contract provides an adaptable framework to ensure sustainable, dependable and high quality service delivery.
“We were able to lean heavily on our experience migrating Canada’s AFV fleet from a transaction based support contract to a ‘rolling-wave’ performance based contract similar to Australia’s approach. An example was that some of the standard performance based measures you see in literature can in fact reduce vehicle availability. We had to couple these with measures that recognize the need to adapt and respond to the Army’s constantly changing operational and sustainment demands. Our service delivery model also incorporates attributes such as cost transparency, continuous improvement and application of lean initiatives. All of these elements contribute to assuring value for money outcomes and good governance of AFV sustainment.”
Stewart added that the contract enables the repair, maintenance and upgrade of combat vehicle fleets to remain a strategic industry capability within Australia.
“The long range focus of this program also presents the opportunity for Australian industry to participate in General Dynamics’ global supply chain,” Stewart said. “We look forward to engaging with Australian companies as part of our design, manufacturing and sustainment transfer initiatives for this contract and other programs such as the Land 121 Phase 4 manufactured and supported in Australia program.
“Another nice feature of our TLS framework is that once it is established, it can be scaled to support other military vehicle fleets under the same performance based contracting arrangements.”
As noted, in deference to the current in-service DIDS contracts held by BAE Systems for military establishments in Victoria, maintenance and support will be performed on the same vehicle types in Darwin and Queensland only. Under the new TLS vehicles will be serviced on an agreed schedule annually established to allow GDLSA to conduct a large element of the work but also allow the unit uniformed tradesman enough exposure to maintain the required technical skills.
It will probably be the best of both worlds with GDLSA having some continuity within the units assisting in providing guidance to unit tradesman as they are posted in and out. There is also a potential for another strong partnership to be established.
Defence Logistics Transformation Program
But surely GDLSA has its eyes on maintenance support of those same FOV currently managed by BAE Systems under the DIDS and Albury Wodonga Military Area contracts?
In April 2009 the Federal Government released the 2009 Defence White Paper, ‘Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030’ which outlined a targeted program of reforms known as the Strategic Reform Program designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Defence.
The Defence Logistics Transformation Program is one of the key initiatives with the aim of bringing deep reform to Defence’s wholesale storage and distribution network by modernising and enhancing its storage and distribution functions to provide optimum support to Defence operations. In doing so, Defence will pursue the most cost-effective procurement options.
As part of these reforms, Defence will also re-tender its base storage, distribution and maintenance functions currently performed under the existing Defence Integrated Distribution System (DIDS) contract. Military vehicles are maintained under this aspect of the DIDS contract which is due for review in 2013.
Among the key outcomes of the new logistics program are the delivery of enhanced Land Materiel maintenance capability – through provision of new purpose built facilities, and the implementation of efficiency and productivity improvements to increase maintenance capacity and improve through-life support.
Defence sees ‘Smart Maintenance’ as increasing productivity and availability across 100 platforms and systems, reducing waste through standardising and introducing flexibility, thereby saving some $4.4 billion over the next decade.
Currently Defence is considering three service provision options for the DLTP: a single service provider to manage and deliver logistic services, as is presently the case; specialist service providers by stream; and Defence directly controlling delivery of service outcomes.
Industry Briefing
On 18 April 2011 Defence conducted an Industry Briefing on this re-tender activity to provide an update on the Defence Logistics Transformation Program and seek industry feedback from industry in relation to a number of possible business models.
Subject to the approvals process it is anticipated that an Invitation to Register Interest (ITR) will be released in the second half of 2011 to assess market interest and to shortlist bidders. Pending the outcome of the ITR, this will be followed by the release of a Request for Tender (RFT), possibly restricted to those shortlisted earlier. Following contractor(s) selection and appointment prior to expiry of DIDS on 30 June 2010, new service providers will be transitioned into new facilities when complete.
Other TLS contract issues
As mentioned earlier, all heavy grade repair to ASLAVS is undertaken by GDLSA at their Pooraka facility north of Adelaide. This is an issue which the Northern Territory government hopes can be avoided through the establishment of heavy repair facilities for AFVs in Darwin.
Eager to attract and enhance defence industry capabilities in its territory, the NT Government has lobbied the Federal Government heavily to this end, and in the process has won a number of major concessions. By April this year it was able to say that its local Defence support industry had a long and proud history in supporting Defence in the Northern Territory.
In a submission to the Commonwealth in April 2011 it pointed out that local SMEs had supported Defence during the operations in East Timor with many companies providing offshore assistance for Defence sustainment activities.
This support has continued with growth and development of local industry since the location of the 1st Brigade in Darwin and the basing of the Armidale Class Patrol Boats at HMAS Coonawarra. The continued expansion of the 1st Brigade has further highlighted the need for a strong and focused Defence support industry providing support for Defence operations locally.
Some years ago the NT Government commissioned a consultant to conduct a study on the merits of undertaking through-life-support (TLS) of the ADF’s armoured vehicles close to where they are based, mainly at Robertson Barracks in Darwin.
The study made particular reference to TLS of:
• 59 Abrams tanks (of which 41 are based in Darwin)
• 257 Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAV – of which 93 are based in Darwin), and
• 350 upgraded M113 armoured personnel carriers (of which perhaps 100 will be based in Darwin).
The cost benefit study showed that a Darwin-based TLS option for armoured vehicles could yield estimated savings in transport and loss of capability of:
• Abrams Tanks – 68% saving over an Adelaide based TLS option and 87%
• saving over a Bandiana based TLS option
• ASLAV – 92% saving over an Adelaide based TLS option
• M113 – 93% saving over an Bandiana based TLS option.
The consultant estimated that the operational availability of each platform should increase by 3-5 days for each Abrams Tank and 3-9 days for M113/ASLAV for each maintenance arising due to reduced transport requirements required for the Darwin-based TLS solution.
The submission said that similar savings in transport costs and increase in operational readiness should equally apply to other Defence equipment that is currently being transported to southern states for TLS activities. The Northern Territory Government believes Defence TLS contracts should preference equipment being maintained where it is based providing cost benefits, capability increases, industry development and economic returns to regions.
In its latest submission, the NT Government concluded that a strong and capable Defence support industry was critical to Defence operations within the Northern Territory. The strategic importance of Darwin had been emphasised by the location of Defence capability in the Northern Territory. There was an opportunity for Defence to review its procurement policy to take advantage of the benefits of maintaining equipment where it is based, engaging prime contractors and local SMEs to provide that support.
We suspect that GDLSA would prefer to maintain its well established heavy workshop at Pooraka workshop for major AFV repair and modification—it would be pointless to ship Victorian-based M113s, ASLAVs and M1A1s to the Northern Territory for repair, but perhaps some aspects of heavy repair, possibly those components displaying minimum MTBFs, could be handled by an augmented repair facility in Darwin.
Subject: Land