Maintenance and Upgrades: Hydrographic ships reflect maritime support changes

1 July 2007

By Tom Muir

Defence will select later this year a contractor to support it fleet of hydrographic survey ships and launches; the contract illustrates a growing trend to outsource aspects of support for entire classes of ships, and Australian companies are pursuing it aggressively.

The Australian Hydrographic Service charts Australian and adjacent waters for both civil and military requirements. Under international law coastal States are required to ensure the safety of navigation in their waters, and the RAN has the national responsibility for hydrographic surveys and the creation, maintenance and updating of charts.

This national responsibility for surveying and charting extends from mainland Australia to Antarctica and includes assistance to Papua New Guinea.

Now responsibility for overall management of the upkeep and support of the ships of the Hydrographic Service is about to be transferred to industry under a new approach to performance-based contracting, which in this case will see the selected contractor responsible for three maintenance availabilities and all the planning activities, effectively opening the market to more sophisticated styles of maintenance management.

In keeping with the nature of this tender which calls for the delivery of comprehensive management of maintenance, engineering, supply and training services, the eight shortlisted contenders, ranging from shipbuilders and propulsion specialists to system integrators, seemingly have little in common other than broad management and logistics capabilities across a wide field.

Last year the Defence Materiel Organisation, through the Hydrographic Systems Program Office, invited suitably experienced and capable organisations to register for the tender to provide in-service support for a minimum of five years to:

* two Leeuwin Class Hydrographic Ships

* four Paluma Class Survey Motor Launches

* the shore-based hydrographic support system facilities, together with associated support systems (but note L3-Nautronix has been awarded a $43 million contract to upgrade the Hydrographic Survey System on the four Paluma-Class Survey Motor Launches and provide systems for the Survey Motor Boats).

The 72 metre hydrographic ships displace 2,550 tonne and are powered by four 810kw Ruston diesels, driving two 1,000kw variable speed electric propulsion motors. The 37 metre survey motor launches are steel-hulled catamarans, with aluminium superstructures and displace 325 tonnes.

They are powered by two Detroit 760kw diesels driving twin shafts. The 9 tonne Survey Motor Boats are carried aboard the hydrographics ships. The requirement calls for the delivery of comprehensive in-service support services at the ships' homeport of Cairns and in remote locations.

We understand there were 16 responses to the ITR from which nine organisations were shortlisted to receive the request for tender, which closes on 9 July.

They were: BAE Systems Australia, Defence Maritime Services, MAN/BMW, Raytheon Australia, Rolls Royce Australia, VT Fitzroy, Tenix Defence, and Thales Australia. Tenix however, has pulled out while the incumbent, Aimtek, previously a part of NQEA, the builder of the Leeuwin Class ships, was also asked to tender for this contract.

We understand that one of Tenix' concerns, was that all bidders were using the same subcontractor, Tro
However in a foretaste of this style of contract (but on a much larger scale), on 1 May Tenix Defence and Saab Systems were contracted by the DMO to undertake through life support of the ANZAC class ships and shore facilities.

The Integrated Material Support (IMS) Program Alliance will last for a minimum of three years (2010) or maximum of nine (2016). It includes the depot level maintenance of between one to three ships at any one time throughout the period of the contract- with the eight RAN ships in service going through a Usage Upkeep Cycle of nine months between maintenance availabilities.

Overall the ANZAC Systems Program Office (SPO) estimates that it will manage more than 170 small to medium changes, about $1 billion worth of work, under the IMS contract. Among these updates are a Harpoon, Mine and Obstacle Avoidance System, propulsion plant control and monitoring system obsolescence upgrade, and communication systems upgrades in line with projects Sea 1772 and 1778.

The contract also provides for major projects such as Anti Ship Missile Defence, an $800 million project to deliver multiple threat capability to the ANZAC Class.

DMO has established the contract so that every three years an opportunity exists to review its conditions and the performance of the contractors, evaluating them against key performance indicators and key commercial principles.

The contract is a completely new vehicle for the delivery of materiel support to the ANZAC class ships and in some respects provides a model for the support of the hydrographic service ships.

With the DMO moving away from historical short term contract-per-maintenance need, and the increasing availability of leased ship repair and maintenance facilities - such as the WA Common User facility and the NSW Government's preference for a similar role for Sydney's Garden Island - Raytheon sees the market opening up to companies with strong management and in-service support capabilities which no longer need to own yards.

Thus, the company reasons, the ship maintenance cycle is no longer the precinct of those with a vested interest in maintaining work for a work force, but will now embrace those companies with broad ranging management know-how that can deliver the outcomes the DMO wants.

None of this is to suggest that those companies with their own yards, such as Thales Australia, or those with ready access to yards such as Defence Maritime Services, lack the managerial skills to handle the hydrographic ships' support contract which will see one contractor responsible for three maintenance availabilities (ships, launches and hydrographic systems) and all the planning activities.

The latter two companies are each contracted to provide in-service support to RAN fleet elements. DMS for the Armidale Class patrol boats under a 15 year contract and Thales for the Huon Class Minehunters, no doubt both reasoning that support for the Leeuwin and Paluma Class vessels is simply 'more of the same'.

We understand that Raytheon's support solution will leverage its performance history in mission support programs concerned with the Fremantle Class patrol boats and the Collins Class submarines, as well as its Cairns-based support team including an exclusive teaming agreement with Cairns Slipyard, a subsidiary of Viking Industries, and collaborative partnerships with a number of local small and medium size enterprises able to provide niche skill and maintenance activities.