ADM is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 Essington Lewis awards.
The Essington Lewis Awards recognise excellence in industry and the Department of Defence collaboration, working together to overcome challenges or problems – ensuring that the ADF has or will have the materiel it needs, when it needs it, and at a cost that represents value for money.
Sadly, this year's awards could not go ahead in-person as initially planned due to pandemic-related restrictions and domestic border closures.
Nonetheless, this year's winners are leading examples of the spirit of the Awards - named for Mr. Essington Lewis, the WWII industrialist credited with cementing Defence Industry as an economic and capability force in Australia.
Major Acquisition – over $50 million
The two finalists in this category are the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement (PPB-R) Project from the SEA3036-1 team and Austal; and the F-35 Regional Engine Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade Program JSF Office and TAE Aerospace.
The winner is: the F-35 Regional Engine Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade Program JSF Office and TAE Aerospace.
In 2015, the US government assigned F135 engine Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade (MRO&U) responsibility to Australia and TAE was subsequently selected as one of four global Product Support Providers.
TAE Aerospace has since worked closely with CASG’s Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Branch, Pratt & Whitney and the US Government F-35 Joint Program Office over the past five years to establish the first Propulsion MRO&U capability outside of the US.
This effort includes training the technical workforce and delivering an engine test facility for the F135 engines of the RAAF and other F-35 Program participants in the Asia-Pacific region.
Major successes include modifying a former Masters’ Home Improvement depot near Ipswich in south-east Queensland to ensure the facility was ready for F135 maintenance after initial plans for a greenfield site or on-base depot were ruled out; and modifying the existing F404/F414 Engine Test Cell to the F135/F414 capability to achieve significant cost and schedule savings.
Minor Acquisition – under $50 million
The two finalists in this category are SmartBase Maintenance Scheduling from Navy’s Missile Maintenance team and Ocean Software; and the Seaworthiness Management and Assurance Reporting Tool (SMART) Project from 12th Level and Navy’s Seaworthiness team.
The winner is: the Seaworthiness Management and Assurance Reporting Tool (SMART) Project from 12th Level and Navy’s Seaworthiness team.
According to CDRE Chris Smith, SMART is "an intuitive, integrated, evidence-based, (near) real-time seaworthiness decision-making tool that provides the ground truth on the preparedness and readiness of the asset - measured against its Operating and Support Intent."
The program began in 2018, when staff were required to manually trawl through vast amounts of raw data in various fundamental inputs to capability databases. 12thLevel used their human-centred-design methodology and worked closely with SURFOR to unravel the complexity of the seaworthiness management problem.
The use of SMART in areas of risk near-to-real-time identification, analysis and management has introduced accountability whilst reducing ship-staff workload. In turn, this has allowed for significantly increased decision making speed, as well as assurance of the fleet program and warship capability. The system will be used by Navy Information Management to form the backbone of their Enterprise level data warehouse.
Major Sustainment – over $20 million
The two finalists in this category are the First of Class upgrade to HMAS Canberra as part of the LHD 5-year Maintenance Program from ACS SPO and NSM Australia; and the Satellite Services contract from PR1272 Satellite Services team and Inmarsat Australia.
The winner is: the First of Class upgrade to HMAS Canberra as part of the LHD 5-year Maintenance Program from ACS SPO and NSM Australia.
Sustainment of the two Canberra class LHDs is the responsibility of the LHD Enterprise – a collaboration between the Commonwealth (Amphibious Combat and Sealift Systems Program Office, Amphibious and Afloat Support Force Element Group, and the Fleet Support Unit); Naval Ship Management (NSM) as the Asset Class Prime Contractor; and Navantia Australia, L3Harris and Saab Australia as Industry Enterprise Participants.
The first of class upgrade for HMAS Canberra was one of the most complex dockings of a warship ever undertaken in Australia.
The most important upgrade was the installation of two 120 tonne propulsion pods, combined worth $32.5m. The support structures designed and constructed in Australia included A-frames and double beams to support the weight of the propellers and pods during installation, and auxiliary cradles designed to support the bulkier propellers.
Overall, the docking required 746 tasks across more than 50 systems to be completed within 16 weeks and was made all the more complicated by the pandemic. Nonetheless, the project was delivered on budget and on time, meeting all internal and external milestones.
Minor Sustainment – under $20 million
The two finalists in this category are the Mini Typhoon, Typhoon and Toplite sustainment from Maritime Cross Platform Systems Program Office and Serco; and the Shadow Tactical UAS Support from Australian Army's Unmanned Aerial Systems Management Unit (UASMU) and Textron Systems Australia.
The winner is: the Shadow Tactical UAS Support from Australian Army's Unmanned Aerial Systems Management Unit (UASMU) and Textron Systems Australia.
The Australian Army's Unmanned Aerial Systems Management Unit (UASMU) and Textron Systems Australia have successfully performed obsolescence management activities to ensure the Army's Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) maintains its operational capability as it nears the end of its life.
The team has completed multiple activities to maintain the Shadow 200s following the US Army's decision to cease support for the capability. These activities included design engineering and local manufacture of bespoke cables, integrating a Portable Ground Control Station configuration that addresses OH&S issues for sole operator functionality, and providing Ground Power Units.
A significant obsolescence issue arose when the Unimog trucks mounting the SH200v1 systems were universally replaced by larger, more capable 40M trucks designed by Rheinmetall under Land 121.
Integration onto the larger vehicles required critical path work by UASMU and Textron to ensure the Shadow TUAS could deploy to Operation Resolute in mid-2020, including creating new machined struts designed to mount access platforms, manufacturing wire cables, implementing a new interface structure arrangement, and conducting vibration and structural analysis.
These were all achieved in the demanding compressed timeframe, enabling the rollout to Operation Resolute.
Support/Services
The two finalists in this category are the AI-Powered Leader-Follower Convoy of Autonomous Vehicles with Obstacle Avoidance from Army Headquarters Robotic & Autonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office, Future Land Warfare Branch and Deakin University; and RAAF Jericho Dawn 18-8 Seeing Machines from Defence’s Innovation Hub and Air Warfare Centre and Seeing Machines.
The winner is: AI-Powered Leader-Follower Convoy of Autonomous Vehicles with Obstacle Avoidance.
This project was conceptualised based on the Army robotic and autonomous system strategic document and related discussions with Army Future Land Warfare division.
A collaborative agreement was formed with Professor Saeid Nahavandi, the Director of Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI), and his team at Deakin University to develop a platform agnostic Autonomous Leader-Follower capability with obstacle avoidance using the in-service HX40M vehicle.
Through a co-design process with stakeholders in Army, the project team at IISRI developed a comprehensive project chart, along with the associated tasks map and technology maps that included all the technical specifications, anticipated functionalities, and verification and validation procedures.
All these project components were continuously refined and turned into actionable tasks and milestone deliverables, with a concise timeline and a precise budget estimation for project execution and progress monitoring.
Deakin University and Future Land Warfare subsequently demonstrated a convoy of five autonomous vehicles capable of driverless navigation and trajectory-following operations with advanced obstacle detection and collision avoidance - positioning the Australian Army ahead of the world in robotic and autonomous system technologies.
Essington Lewis Trophies
Finally, the Essington Lewis Trophies – mounted WWII bayonets - are awarded to outstanding Prime and SME teams for their work.
This year's Prime category winner is the F-35 Regional Engine Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade Program JSF Office and TAE Aerospace.
This year's SME category winner is the Seaworthiness Management and Assurance Reporting Tool (SMART) Project.
ADM would like to extend our congratulations to all winners, finalists, and to all those who submitted nominations for this year’s awards: once again demonstrating excellence in collaboration between Defence and Industry!