Defence’s Deployable Air Traffic Management and Control System (DDATMCS) project has recently been placed on the government’s Projects of Concern list, due to the fact that it is reportedly running more than two years behind schedule.
The DDATMCS is being delivered under project Air 5431 Phase 1 and the program was placed on the government watch list on August 22 last year, together with Defence’s other air traffic management project, Air 5431 Phase 3 (Civil Military Air Traffic Management System).
Air 5431 Phase 3 has been placed on the list due to “substantial challenges” experienced while getting the interdepartmental project onto contract, involving concern over value to Australian taxpayers. This project will deliver a harmonised civil and military air traffic management system under the OneSKY program, collectively being led and managed by Airservices Australia.
Although the two projects are under the same Air 5431 program umbrella, the joint statement by Minister for Defence Marise Payne and Defence Industry Christopher Pyne makes it clear that there is no dependency between them and their inclusion on the list is unrelated.
Air 5431 Phase 1 overview
Project Air 5431 Phase 1 is acquiring a DDATMCS which, when delivered, will provide an air surveillance and air traffic management capability that can be utilised on deployed operations, when existing fixed infrastructure is either unavailable or not suitable for the purpose.
The solution will be a mix of mobile and transportable surveillance radar systems, support vehicles and associated data processing and communications systems and the final capability will be a mix of systems, known as level one and level two systems.
Making up the level 1 system capability will be two self-contained and mobile Air Traffic Control (ATC) Management Systems, which each have their own organic vehicles and mobilisers. These systems will have two operator positions and they are intended to be rapidly deployable by air, land or sea for operations of a shorter duration, such as during Defence assistance to humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) operations.
The single level two system will be a self-contained ATC management system to replace the current Tactical Airfield Surveillance Radar capability. This is a larger system, with six operator positions but it is also designed to be readily deployable by air, land and sea and intended for longer and/or larger-scale deployments, either at the bare bases in northern Australia or to air bases overseas, in order to deliver normal air traffic management services.
Budget and schedule
First Pass approval for the Phase 1 project was announced by then Minister for Defence Stephen Smith in December 2010, at which time he said that the cost would be capped at between $100 million and $150 million and that Government would make a final decision between 2012 and 2014.
According to the later Defence Capability Plan of 2012 the schedule called for a year of decision between 2013 and 2015, up to a year later than originally forecast, with an Initial Materiel Release (IMR) between 2015 and 2018 and an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) between 2016 and 2018.
The DCP defined IOC at the time as, “An operationally deployable number of systems delivered and supported with appropriate training and logistics support arrangements.” It said that Final Operational Capability (FOC) would be determined when the full scope of the project, including the mission, support and training systems and facilities (if required) had been delivered and accepted into operational service.
The document also noted that the acquisition cost would be between $100 and $300 million, albeit predicted to be at the lower end of the band.
Air 5431 Phase 1 was eventually awarded to Indra Australia in 2014 but, according to Defence, the project has since “experienced schedule delays since approval and initial delivery is expected almost two years later than originally planned”.
Project of Concern
The Defence Capability and Sustainment Group’s Director General Air and Space Surveillance and Control Air Commodore Sally Pearson says that Air 5431 Phase 1 was added to the Projects of Concern list in August last year due to Indra Australia’s delays in delivery of the program.
“The primary reasons for delays were the difficulty Indra Australia experienced in recruiting people with specialised skill sets, and an initial lack of understanding of the defence business environment in Australia,” AIRCDRE Pearson explained to ADM. “These difficulties in the early stages of the project have had a compounding effect through the project’s life resulting in schedule slippages.”
Initial Operational Capability for the project is currently forecast to be approximately 26 months late and not due to be achieved until October 2020. As a consequence, Final Operational Capability has now been delayed to November 2020, some 15 months later than initially planned.
Project remediation
The Projects of Concern concept has successfully remediated the overwhelming majority of the projects it has considered and Ministers Payne and Pyne point out that the process has now achieved the successful remediation of 17 troubled projects, with a combined value of almost $17 billion.
With this in mind, what is being done to remediate Air 5431 Phase 1? Well, AIRCDRE Pearson says that CASG is working closely with Indra Australia and major subcontractor Indra Sistemas of Spain to remediate the project schedule. She says that this has involved ongoing direct engagement between the CASG Project Office and the Indra project teams, both here in Australia as well as in Spain.
“CASG has also been engaging at the senior executive level with Indra Australia and Indra Sistemas,” AIRCDRE Pearson adds. “In September 2017, Defence positioned a project resident engineer at Indra Sistemas’ Madrid facility to provide ongoing onsite liaison throughout the design, development and production phases."
This article first appeared in the February edition of ADM.