Maintenance and Upgrades: FFG Upgrade moves ahead

1 July 2007

By Gregor Ferguson

The FFG upgrade program has had its ups and downs but Thales Australia is proud of the way to the program has come together and improvements made to the HMAS Sydney. There was a lot to change on an older platform that will be in service until the new Air Warfare Destroyers come into play.

The Navy's FFG Upgrade program, Project Sea 1390 Ph.2, has attracted attention and comment for the wrong reasons - it encountered significant technical problems and has been subject to serious delays and much criticism.

However, prime contractor Thales Australia is working doggedly and continues to recover the program and deliver the contracted capability.

There seems little doubt that the capability currently at sea aboard HMAS Sydney, the lead ship in the upgrade program, is an order of magnitude superior to that of the RAN's baseline FFGs and Thales says that Sydney and her sister ship Melbourne should achieve deployable combat capability, including the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) capability, by the end of this year.

To recap briefly, the FFG Upgrade program is designed to restore the ships' relative air defence, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities, and to significantly improve their anti-missile self-defence capabilities through the integration of the ESSM and associated fire control system and launcher.

Associated platform work was designed to extend the service lives of ships. Thales Australia (formerly ADI Limited) was awarded the $987 million fixed price prime contract in 1999.

In the event, the Government decided to retire the two oldest FFGs, Adelaide and Canberra, early; and the four remaining ships will now pay off in two batches, Sydney and Darwin from about 2015 onwards and the two Australian-built ships, Melbourne and Newcastle, from about 2020 onwards.

Thales Australia (at that time still ADI Ltd) teamed with Lockheed Martin to address the combat system upgrade, naval architects Gibbs & Cox to address platform issues and Thales Underwater Systems to address the underwater warfare upgrade.

ADI was responsible for detailed installation design and in 2002 assumed design authority for the combat system from Lockheed Martin, which was the original designer of the Mk92 Fire Control System which lies at its heart. However, the US Navy was, and remains, responsible for modifying software for the Weapon Control Processor, the heart of the upgraded MK 92 Mod12 FCS.

The combat system upgrade has resulted in the development of an all-new Australian Distributed Architecture Combat System (ADACS), for which Thales Australia is prime contractor. ADACS software is being developed by Thales Australia in Nedlands, WA, and is being delivered progressively in three 'Builds'.

The handover of the upgraded Sydney to the Navy was originally scheduled for September 2003; but thanks to the now seemingly inevitable software development and integration delays, this didn't happen until April 2006.

The following month she was granted Interim Operational Release, and finally achieved the Provisional Acceptance milestone in December last year. However, she won't achieve her full capability until at least the end of 2007.

The upgrade program involves installing the new Mk92 Mod12 FCS, the ADACS processors and displays, the undersea warfare modifications, and an 8-cell Mk41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) on the focsle, forward of the ship's Mk13 missile launcher, to carry quad-packed ESSM air-and point-defence missiles.

While docked, the ships' diesel generators have been removed and replaced via major hull penetrations; the ships are also being fitted with the Thales Spherion hull-mounted sonar and Petrel retractable Mine and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar (MOAS). A certain amount of unexpected hull repair work has also been carried out on the US-built FFGs also.

The production schedule for the FFG Upgrade is 72 weeks from handover of the ship to Thales at Garden Island to Provisional Acceptance of the upgraded ship by the Navy. The ships are being modified in order of availability: Sydney first, then Melbourne, which has begun sea trials, followed by Darwin and then Newcastle.

The upgrade begins when the ship is dry-docked for 24 weeks for installation of the new diesel generators and sonars and various tasks on the hull. A further 15 weeks is spent alongside completing installation of the upgraded equipment. This is followed by a 17-week test program, starting with dockyard trials and going right through to Category 5 Sea Trials, and then 'Handback' to the Navy.

The Handback milestone comes several weeks before Provisional Acceptance, depending on how much work is required after the Category 5 trials. This provides a schedule cushion - what Thales calls a 'shared float' which either Navy or Thales can call upon if required.

The trials program for the ship and its upgraded combat system is carried out in graduated phases. Category 1 are component-level trials; Category 3 are the first systems integration trials; Category 4 trials begin alongside and then progressively at sea - they cover installation, set to work, tests of the internal connectivity and then tests of external connectivity.

Category 5 trials are designed to prove the entire combat system at sea, including live weapons firings. HMAS Sydney underwent Cat 5 trials last year; after undocking ahead of schedule in July last year, Melbourne's Cat 4 trials were 90 per cent complete at the time of writing; her Cat 5 trials began on time in May and are on schedule for completion later this month.

The combat system upgrade is comprehensive - described by Thales and the Navy as the "most sophisticated naval systems integration task ever undertaken in Australia by an Australian company involving both new technologies and legacy equipment". The full scope of the upgrade includes:

* Replacing the command and control system with the Australian Distributed Architecture Combat System (ADACS) which will provide enhanced situational awareness and tactical functionality

* Upgrading the SPS-49 Surveillance Radar from the (V)4 standard to the SPS-49A (V)1. This version of the radar provides superior Moving Target Indication and Doppler measurement performance, providing for better, earlier, initial detection of incoming missiles.

* Modernising the Mk 92 Mod 2 Fire Control System to Mod 12

* Installing an 8-Cell Mk 41 Vertical Launch System to handle ESSM

* Replacing the AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Surveillance System with the Israeli C-Pearl ESM

* Installing Link-16 to complement the existing Link-11 tactical data link

* Replacing Hull Mounted Raytheon MF Sonar SQS-56 with the largely locally developed Thales Spherion MF Sonar, the next generation to that installed on the Anzac Class ships

* Installing the locally developed Thales PETREL Mine and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar, and incorporating a Torpedo Defence System.

The software holding these components together is being developed in three Builds. The first is the basic load which delivers the same capability as the original ship; Build 2 provides all the added functionality, including the interfaces for the ESSM and associated command and control software and the new gunfire control system.

Build 3, to be completed next year, will include the Link 16 functionality - this will be the first time the RAN has had a full Link 16 tactical Data Link (TADIL) capability integrated within a Naval Combat System.

Build 1 is already at sea aboard HMAS Sydney and Melbourne; in early-2007 Build 2 was undergoing Cat 3 testing in Thales's Integrated Test Site at Garden Island - this build includes Mk92 FCS software from the US Navy which remains the In-Service Support (ISS) agent for the Mk 92 family hardware and software. This was expected to go to sea aboard either Sydney or Melbourne once Cat 3 testing was completed.

Thales told ADM that it would be up to the Commonwealth when to ammunition one of the ships and carry out the full Cat 5 sea trial; this was expected to take place 'around mid-2007', depending on availability of other test assets such as air targets.

There is a 'high probability' that both Sydney and Melbourne will be fitted with Build 2 software and be fully ESSM-capable by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Darwin was refloated in mid-June after entering the drydock in early-2007. She was scheduled to begin sea trials in September, completing her Cat 5 trials by the end of the year, with Provisional Acceptance scheduled for mid-2008; Provision Acceptance of Newcastle is scheduled for mid-2009.

A key part of the FFG Upgrade is the replacement of its ageing SM-1 surface-air missiles with the more capable SM-2, which has a greater range and a mid-course guidance capability.

This is not covered by Thales Australia's prime contract, however - the missiles are being acquired through a US FMS agreement under Phase 4b of Project Sea 1390 - but the FFG Upgrade project is making some provision for the new weapons.

Phase 4b was approved in mid-2004 and will see the integration of the SM-2 into the upgraded FFGs, and acquisition of the weapons themselves. The first SM-2-capable FFG should be operational in 2009.

Thales Australia did the SM-2 upgrade study for the RAN and has made the necessary changes to the ships; these include a new interface box and other modifications to Mk13 single-rail missile launcher to match the SM-2, new ablative coatings for the launcher, and new cabling.

Changes to the Mk92 FCS are being carried out by Lockheed Martin under the FMS agreement, while BAE Systems is installing a new FCS interface box to initialize the missile.

The combat system components and software were tested and integrated in a Combat System Integration Centre (CSIC), consisting of a complete ship set of combat system equipment and simulators for the On-Board Training System (OBTS) which forms part of the ADACS.

The CSIC hardware consisted of equipment destined for one of the six FFGs to be upgraded under the original project plan. With the cancellation of the upgrade to Adelaide and Canberra, the Commonwealth is reassigning the CSIC hardware so it can use this as part of its own test program.

There's no doubt the FFG Upgrade has been a troubled project, but Thales Australia believes the low point is well in the past and the upgraded ships will be highly effective in their role with far higher levels of survivability in a modern combat environment.

It's arguable that performing such a major upgrade on a 20-year-old ship was too ambitious, but as it transpired, the upgraded FFGs will provide the RAN's principal air defence capability until the arrival in frontline service of the RAN's new Air Warfare Destroyers.

This won't happen before 2013, depending on the ship design selected by the Navy and unforeseen developments during the build program, so for the next decade the FFGs will be critical parts of the RAN, and wider ADF, order of battle.