Beefing up the ANZAC frigates

The ANZAC Ships were built to a price but designed for growth: there's another 25-30 years of life left in the fleet, so the RAN's ANZACs will be the subject of ongoing upgrades; some of these are already under way.
The ANZAC Ship Project vividly illustrates the difficulties inherent in the long lead times for major defence projects. Conceived (or at least sold to the government of the day) as second or third tier patrol frigates during the 1970s and early 1980s, the demands on them today require a different and more comprehensive set of combat capabilities than that set out in 1987.

Furthermore, the RAN's ANZACs will be in service well beyond 2020. There is no doubt that the ANZACs will evolve still further in that time. So it's a good thing the ships were designed deliberately with growth in mind. That growth capacity is being exploited to the full in a series of thus far successful upgrades. One of these, the Harpoon missile upgrade, of which more below, won the ANZAC Alliance one of the inaugural ADM Defence Industry Awards this year.

The ANZAC Ship class was initially contracted with a surface and underwater self defence capability limited by the ceiling price. Two groups of upgrades were subsequently introduced to address most of these limitations. They were the Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade, a major undertaking with the goal of enhancing the ships' self defence capabilities especially against missile threats, and a series of improvements that addressed Underwater and Surface Warfighting (USWUP) capabilities.

Those directly involved in the ANZAC program, Tenix Defence, Saab Systems and the Commonwealth, formed the ANZAC Alliance with the primary role of designing and developing change packages for the ANZAC Class in response to Commonwealth needs.

The Alliance was first tasked with determining whether the modelled Anti Ship Missile Defence capability could be procured, integrated and introduced into service and supported within the program budget. As a result a costed system configuration for the baseline ASMD upgrade was prepared comprising a number of capability enhancements and system upgrades together with some platform design changes. One essential capability, the Link 16 tactical data link, received priority approval for installation under a separate project.

There followed extensive delays and it wasn't until April 2005 that a Project Alliance Agreement was negotiated and executed with the ANZAC Ship Alliance under a $260 million contract to implement the high priority aspects of the upgrade. These were for the Infra Red Search & Track (IRST) for improved detection of low level aircraft and incoming missiles, and an upgrade to the ship's combat management system to match the functionality of the new equipment and increase its data processing capability. These were effected through procurement contracts signed with both SAGEM (IRST) and Saab Systems for the 9LV Mk 3E Combat Management System, with deliverables on time and within budget.

This phase of the ASMD upgrade included a study and trials to consider the feasibility of including an active phased array radar (PAR) as part of an ASMD solution. In addition to the PAR, the options included installation of a phased array radar director as the proposed second channel of fire (to enable multiple launch of ESSM missiles and illumination of incoming targets) instead of a second conventional fire control director. Consideration of a very short-range air defence (VSRAD) capability was also included as another option. This last was dropped with the decision to adopt the phased array radar.

As a result of land-based and sea trials (the latter aboard HMAS Arunta in September 2005) it was announced that CEA Technologies had been chosen to provide their locally designed and developed lightweight Active Phased Array Radar system.

The major components of the CEA system are a search and track radar (CEA-FAR) and a phased array missile illuminator (CEA-MOUNT). In addition to providing self-protection, the ANZAC Anti-Ship Missile Defence system will also be able to protect closely escorted assets such as amphibious ships, auxiliary support vessels and merchant vessels.

With the inclusion of the advanced PAR capabilities under Phase 2B, the ASMD upgrade will be implemented ship-by-ship in stages of increasing capability. The final ships will receive the full capability and the earlier ships will be progressively upgraded during scheduled maintenance availabilities. There has been substantial local industry involvement in the ASMD program through the development, integration, test and verification of the various components by Alliance members including through use of their facilities. Alliance members will also be responsible for the installation, set-to-work, and through life support of the equipment including software maintenance and upgrade.

This group of ANZAC Ship enhancements covers improvements to the surface warfare and mine and obstacle avoidance capabilities of the ANZAC frigates operated by the Royal Australian Navy. Four separate capabilities are involved. These are:

* Harpoon anti-ship missile system, including the fire control system and canisters for each ship

* Torpedo Self Defence

* Mine and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar; and

* Integration of the torpedo tubes to enable the ships to fire lightweight torpedoes.

ANZAC Shipbuilder Tenix Defence undertook preliminary studies into the implementation of all four capabilities. Revised cost estimates developed through negotiations between Defence and Tenix in early 2001 indicated that the project was significantly under-funded and despite further investigations provision of all four capabilities within the approved budget costs was not achievable.

As a result the integration of the torpedo tubes was removed from the scope of the project and is now being pursued through the lightweight torpedo acquisition project. The other three capabilities were then ranked according to priority for introduction into service. Harpoon was the highest priority and the weapon system is being installed into elements of the ANZAC fleet as ships become available.

The ANZACs currently have no mechanism to warn of mines or other obstacles in the ship's path other than the standard navigational sonar system. The Mine and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar was assessed as a priority and approved in 2005. The Thales Underwater Systems (TUS) Petrel sonar system will be fitted which involves the installation of a retractable sonar array and the associated monitoring, control and support equipment.

The Torpedo Self Defence System was deferred for consideration later in the Defence Capability Plan but does not appear in the public version of the 2006-2016 DCP. The ANZAC frigates are currently fitted with the Nixie towed decoy system, designed to seduce incoming torpedoes away from the towing ship. The ships are also fitted with launchers that currently deploy airborne chaff decoys but which are capable of launching subsurface decoys. However, the apparent cancellation of the Torpedo Self Defence System must leave the ANZACs more vulnerable to torpedo attack than would otherwise have been the case.

The successful implementation of these two upgrade programs will result in a significant and much needed enhancement to the ANZAC ships' self defence and offensive capabilities as they enter their second decade of service.

By Tom Muir, Canberra