Under the optimal pathway to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, Australia has made significant progress, creating much of the necessary infrastructure and training a nuclear workforce.
But Australia has yet to make one crucial decision – who will deliver combat system support, initially for visiting US nuclear powered submarines, but, from the early 2030s for Australia’s own US Virginia-class submarines.
Phil Gordon, Lockheed Martin Australia’s Director for Strategy and Business Development for Rotary and Mission Systems said a submarine’s combat system was what turned a very expensive boat which could submerge into a fighting platform.
“The highest priority at the moment for the Australian Submarine Agency is getting itself ready to support the visiting boats and to get us sovereign ready to operate our own Australian-flagged Virginias,” Gordon says.
“For Lockheed Martin, that is an opportunity to offer the Australian Submarine Agency a no-fail partner, a low risk option. Lockheed Martin is the combat system integrator for the US Virginia submarines.
“We support this work for the US Navy in the US and around the world. It is actually broader than that. Lockheed Martin is the combat system integrator for every US Navy submarine. spanning combat system upkeep, update and upgrade across their life.”
Further, Lockheed Martin is also the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for key systems on US and a range of allied submarines including the Collins.
That includes some of the large items, such as sonars, imaging and electronic support measures (ESM).
Lockheed Martin also manufactures and supports the Guidance and Control section for the Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo, used on US and Australian submarines and also mandated as the primary weapon for Australia’s future nuclear powered-submarines, the SSN AUKUS.
Australia, the US and UK announced AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States) in September 2021, an unprecedented trilateral security agreement to equip the Royal Australian Navy with nuclear-powered conventionally armed submarines.
Following the AUKUS announcement, the three nations embarked on a period of consultation to develop the optimal pathway for that to occur.
In March 2023, that pathway was outlined as a four step process, beginning with Australian military and civilian personnel embedding with the US Navy and Royal Navy and in the US and UK industrial bases to accelerate nuclear training.
The US Navy and Royal Navy were to step up visits of nuclear submarines (SSN) to Australian ports, mainly HMAS Stirling in Western Australia.
Since then, five Virginia-class SSNs have visited Stirling. Two US Navy submarine tenders visited Australia last year. Increasingly, Australian sailors have embedded aboard US submarines and support vessels.
Australian personnel participated in maintenance of USS Hawaii during its visit to HMAS Stirling. That was quite a big deal, demonstrating advances in Australian skills and just how far the US has come in allowing non-US nationals to work on their nuclear boats.
The next big step occurs in 2027, maybe sooner, with US and UK SSNs set to begin forward rotations through HMAS Stirling. That’s called Submarine Rotational Force – West, abbreviated to SRF-W and pronounced surf-west.
That will accelerate the training of Australian navy personnel and the industrial workforce. It will also speed development of infrastructure and regulatory systems “to establish a sovereign SSN capability.”
Under the optimal pathway, the next step starts in the early 2030s. The US will sell us initially, three, and maybe up to five Virginia-class SSNs.
Some of these will be in-service US Navy boats, with Australia expressing a preference for two with 20 years or more remaining life and one fresh from the production line.
Ultimately, in the late 2030s the UK will deliver the first SSN AUKUS to the Royal Navy and Australia will start construction of the first SSN AUKUS for the RAN, to be delivered in the early 2040s.
This will be an all-new design, drawing on US, UK and Australian expertise. Some key components have already been decided, including use of a Rolls Royce reactor.
Australia is to hand Britain GBP 2.4 billion (AU$3.1 billion) towards submarine design work and to expand capacity at the Rolls-Royce reactor plant at Darby, UK.
Some other decisions have been made. SSN AUKUS will be constructed by BAE Systems. In Australia, that’s BAE Systems Australia and its shipbuilder ASC at a new built yard at Osborn, South Australia.
But long before the RAN sees an SSN AUKUS, it will be operating Virginia-class SSNs. And before that, US Navy Virginia-class SSNs will be alongside in Stirling, requiring support, including for its exceedingly complex combat system.
Gordon said Lockheed Martin Australia was ready to assist the Australian Submarine Agency as it already performed this exact same job for the US Navy’s submarine force. Further, the company has a substantial skilled sovereign workforce retained and redeployed following cancellation of the Attack-class submarines program.
Before AUKUS, Australia was planning a fleet of 12 conventionally-powered submarines based on a design by French defence company Naval Group. They were to replace the Navy’s six ageing Collins-class boats.
Naval Group, then DCNS, was declared the winner in April 2016. Five months later Lockheed Martin Australia was selected as Combat System Integrator for Australia's Future Submarine Program.
That was around two and a half years before Australia signed the main submarine contract with Naval Group.
That apparently reflected a strong desire for a considered and systematic approach to developing an effective combat system for the new subs. Of all the many issues with the Collins boats, the troublesome combat system proved the most intractable and costly to remediate.
“One of the reasons we are ready is not just that Lockheed Martin upkeep, update, and upgrade the US Navy’s submarine combat systems, but because we built a sovereign workforce of 240 people for the Attack-class submarines,” Gordon said.
The cancelled Attack program cost the Commonwealth around $830 million to exit but one enduring national benefit is Lockheed Martin Australia’s local workforce who spent four years developing the Attack-class combat system.
“We were competitively selected to design and deliver the Combat System as
the Combat System Integrator for the Attack class,” Gordon said.
“We had 240 people who were delivering and meeting all milestones when that program was cancelled. More than 70 per cent of those people still work for Lockheed Martin Australia today.” That’s on various complex programs such as AIR 6500 for integrated air and missile defence.
During its brief life, the Attack-class program was routinely criticised for slow progress. None of that was directed at the combat system development which successfully reached and executed preliminary design review.
Gordon said Lockheed Martin Australia could deliver SSN combat system integration and support at low risk by leveraging the company’s US experience to seed some key positions.
“We have more than 200 people who have already worked on combat system integration for Australian submarines who are in Lockheed Martin employment today,” he said.
“We know 2027 is the line in the sand for SRF-W to be up and running. Then sovereign ready comes after that.
“Lockheed Martin gives the opportunity to not only rapidly redeploy an experienced workforce to meet the 2027 timeline but it is a low-risk path to get to sovereign ready, which is arguably the bigger hurdle.”
“If Lockheed Martin Australia is the selected partner supporting visiting US boats, then it will be completely seamless for the US Navy. When they pull alongside in Stirling, it will be as though they are pulling alongside in Pearl Harbour.”
Gordon said a large part of successfully executing SRF-W should be to give the US Navy confidence that Australia was doing the right thing and would look after their crown jewels, nuclear powered submarines.
“It will be the same experienced company as the partner, using the same processes, the same decades of experience,” he said.
“It will simply be an extension of support already enjoyed by US Navy submarine force but with an Australian workforce that we will grow and be sovereign ready to support the optimal pathway.”
A modern submarine’s combat system is utterly fundamental to its warfighting capabilities.
Dave Schappert, Lockheed Martin Undersea Warfare Business Development Senior Manager and a former US Navy submarine commander, said there were many reasons why US Navy submarines are successful.
“The crews obviously are very highly trained. There is a lot of experience from our US submarines industrial base. But also Lockheed Martin products are part of what makes US submarines particularly deadly,” he said.
Schappert said Virginia-class submarine combat systems were a system of systems, comprising multiple different elements.
One part is the AN/BYG-1 combat management system, common to both the Collins and Virginia class submarines.
“But that is one sub-system in the larger system of systems that comprises the entire combat system on Virginia. We refer to that as SWFTS - Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical System.
That includes the submarine’s sonar sensors and processors, imaging sensors and processors, the electronic warfare system and processors and the combat management system. That’s some 40 different sub-systems working together seamlessly.
“What SWFTS does is that it sets a common information baseline so all those different pieces of those systems can speak to each other in a known format and share that information globally and have it displayed across the ship so the operator has the best information possible to do their job from a combat system management perspective,” he said.
In its facility, in Manassas, Virginia, Lockheed Martin, maintains a lab containing the entire hardware set of the combat system of every single type of operating submarines in the US Navy fleet.
That includes a replica of the combat system of every Virginia-class SSN which will deploy to Australia.
Schappert said that meant company personnel could provide spare parts and components plus expert trouble shooting and sustainment support 24/7 every day of the year.
“We are supporting the US Navy’s Virginia class submarines today,” he said
“With that breadth of experience and that equipment and investment in that infrastructure, Lockheed Martin corporation believes we are best positioned to upskill the Australian sovereign workforces that was developed for the Attack-class and provide them the exact type of training and support for the exact type of equipment that will be in Australia, therefore the lowest risk partner and the fastest response time to get to a capability as soon as possible.”
Further down the track is SSN AUKUS, for which no decision on a combat systems integration partner has been made and may not for some years. That will certainly involve Australia, the UK and maybe the US.
Gordon said Lockheed Martin believed it could make a great contribution to SSN AUKUS.
“We stand ready to engage with the Australian Submarine Agency on that when the time is right,” he said.
“We feel that the most important most pressing thing we can help with right now is to get us ready to support the visiting boats, to get us sovereign ready to operate our own fleet of Virginias,” he said.