DMO News: Save today to invest tomorrow | ADM Jul 2010
Jane Wolfe | Canberra
As has been reported in this magazine and elsewhere, the 2009 Defence White Paper included ambitious plans to enhance and modernise the ADF’s operational capabilities.
Freeing up resources to invest in the future and to deliver the modernised force is what the Strategic Reform Program (SRP) is all about.
The Government’s decision to allow Defence to reinvest the cost reductions achieved under the SRP provides incentives for both Defence (more equipment) and for industry (more long-term business opportunities) to get this right.
Defence, with the assistance of industry, is on track to achieve the SRP targets for the 2009-10 financial year.
To put that in perspective, that’s in the order of $260 million of cost reductions just in relation to the Smart Sustainment element of SRP.
This will see a quarter of a billion dollars that can be redirected to fund the new equipment and support requirements of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) of the future.
For the DMO, working with our ADF customers as they develop their requirements (the demand side) and working internally and with industry to extract efficiencies over the life of our contracts (the supply side) is the key to success.
We are not claiming success yet, but we are confident in our plans and we are not in the vulnerable position where ‘any road’ looks equally attractive.
Continuing engagement with industry and taking up the ideas for improvement they offer is essential to success.
Some of the highlights of our progress to date include:
• active engagement of industry partners with the DMO and Air Force to deliver cost reductions in the maintenance of our ‘classic’ Hornet fleet.
• the analysis that Air Force and the DMO have done to achieve a better match between training needs and the rates of effort required of our PC-9 aircraft.
• the commitment of Thales and other sub-contractors to the reviews of support concepts for our Mine Clearance naval capabilities.
• the joint determination of Army and the DMO to focus on the actual requirements of today’s force in relation to levels of equipment, clothing and inventory rather than inherited or assumed requirements based on old benchmarks.
• the intelligent application of maintenance and engineering expertise that informs decisions on adjusting service intervals for land vehicle fleets.
• the continuation of work that commenced well before the White Paper and SRP announcements to enhance the efficiency of deeper maintenance service for our helicopter fleets.
• the commitment of the DMO, its lead Defence customer in Air Force and specialist advisers from Defence Science and Technology Organisation to re-define the contracting of support for the Wide Area Surveillance radar capability.