• A RAAF E-7A Wedgetail arrives in the Middle East.
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    A RAAF E-7A Wedgetail arrives in the Middle East. Defence
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Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) is playing an important early role in supporting the establishment of the UK’s Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) program, BDA Managing Director Scott Carpendale has disclosed.

Carpendale told media that this activity began shortly after the UK signed a US$1.98 billion contract on 22 March for five Boeing E-7 AEW&C aircraft. Deliveries will take place in the early 2020s.

“Within Australia we have a leading role both in supporting the development of the UK aircraft and aircraft systems and also in making sure the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is able to establish a support infrastructure that gives them the same capability as Australia’s Wedgetail program,” he said.

The work was being undertaken in conjunction with Boeing UK and the UK MoD.

“We have a project team, we have people in Williamtown who are building some of the ground segments that will be shipped to the UK, we are undertaking software development in Australia that is part of an integrated software development team with a UK software baseline,” Carpendale stated.

Implementation of the $582.5 million upgrade program for the RAAF’s Wedgetail fleet announced in July 2017 was continuing on schedule, he disclosed.

Under Project Air 5077 Phase 5A, BDA is fitting the six Wedgetails with new combat identification sensors, tactical data links, communications hardware and encryption systems, and mission computing hardware and software upgrades. The work will be completed in mid-2022.

Carpendale described the upgrades as meeting uniquely-defined Australian requirements, and declined to comment on whether any might be included in the UK AEW&C program.

“But I would agree that some of the capability would certainly appeal to the UK,” he added.

Comms Export Opportunities

BDA is also seeking export opportunities in both the UK and the US for its $950 million Currawong Battlespace Communications System, according to Darcy Rawlinson, BDA’s Business Development Manager for Deployed Network Communications Systems.

Developed under Project Land 2072 Phase 2B, Currawong is providing a digital strategic communications system linking Army’s deployed forces and headquarters, and achieved Initial Operating Capability (IOC) with the ADF in April last year.

Rawlinson said the British Army was seeking a wide area network for its headquarters under Project Trinity, “and Currawong provides a lot of the requirements of that program, so what we’ll be offering, probably sometime over the next two years, is something based on the technology in Currawong.

“We do have the ability to modify that where the UK has slightly different requirements; we have our 120-strong team here in Australia and we also have a team in Boeing Defence UK helping us with this as well.”

Rawlinson said the US Army was looking to upgrade its Warfighting Information Network Tactical (WIN-T), now more commonly known as the Integrated Tactical Network, and certain elements of Currawong were of interest.

“They’re quite keen to take the next stage of doing some formal testing with the system over in their labs so they can understand exactly how it performs. That will probably happen in the next six months,” Rawlinson disclosed.

“It will really be about Currawong doing some of the heavy lifting on the networking side, our routing and our network management system. You never have enough bandwidth and someone can be trying to deny that space to you.

“Here our headquarters are constantly moving, so it’s really important that the network is very agile and flexible to deal with all that while reducing the complexities that soldiers have to deal with,” Rawlinson said.

“It does that for the Australian Army and the US see that as something which can really enhance their network, and something for which it is well-worth continuing their dialogue with us.”

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