Patrick Durrant | Sydney
On Friday the latest addition to the Navy’s fleet, the LHD NUSHIP Adelaide, will be commissioned into service, joining her slightly older sister HMAS Canberra at Fleet Base East, and marking a seismic shift in the ADF’s amphibious and disaster relief capabilities.
ADM toured the impressive Landing Helicopter Dock this week. By all accounts, Adelaide’s transition from the construction phase to the in use phase (marked by Initial Materiel Release [IMR]) has been somewhat smoother and faster than her sister’s, and this is to be expected in later ships of any class.
Nevertheless, the Navy has accepted a degree of risk by accepting the two ships into service knowing full well that the Operational Test and Evaluation (T&E) phase for both could become something of a “Voyage of Discovery”.
These were the words used in the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report into Test And Evaluation of Major Defence Equipment Acquisitions tabled on 24 November, as an example of what might occur when insufficient developmental and acceptance T&E has occurred prior to Defence granting System Acceptance.
Indeed IMR for Canberra was declared in October 2014 “with System Acceptance test procedures ongoing and many test reports not submitted for Defence’s approval”.
The ship was commissioned the following month on 28 November.
ANAO said early T&E was necessary “to establish the ‘objective quality evidence’ required by Defence prior to system Acceptance.
Trials deferred until after Systems Acceptance included the testing of the Canberra’s stern gate ability to act as a steel beach for amphibious vehicles and as a ramp for transferring vehicles in harbour.
In addition, Defence had not held to an agreed ANAO recommendation that the DMO (now CASG) ensure the delegate authorised to approve Systems Acceptance be an executive “commensurate with the importance of the project, who is external to the Systems Program Office”.
The report said “LHD1 System Acceptance was exercised by the then LHD Project manager, a Navy Captain, rather than the Chair of the Project manager Stakeholder Group, a three-star equivalent officer”.
The Adelaide, for now, appears in far better shape, with sources indicating she is not suffering the excessive vibrations experienced by her sibling at higher speeds. She did however, have to settle for Canberra’s defective stern gate, when a shortage of spares meant a swap was the preferred means for swift rectification.
With LHD operational T&E now underway and not due for completion until the fourth quarter of 2017 (after Exercise Talisman Sabre), the report said it remains to be seen what impact, if any, this elevated risk has on the achievement of Final Operational Capability.
Of the three recommendations made in the report, which covered the broader T&E approach by Defence, that most applicable in the case study of the LHDs was that prior to System Acceptance, Defence “ensures that material deficiencies and defects are identified and documented, and plans for their remediation established”.