Projects: AWD and LHD coming together | ADM December 2012/January 2013

In bustling facilities some 650km apart, the eventual shapes of the RAN ’s first Hobart class air warfare destroyer (AWD) and its first Canberra class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) are becoming increasingly recognisable.

In practical terms, the physical evidence of the advances being made by ASC and the AWD Alliance at Osborne near Adelaide and by BAE Systems Australia with the LHD at Williamstown in suburban Melbourne not only demonstrates the magnitude of each program but also provides a handy reference point by which future progress can be measured.

The AWD schedule has now been rebaselined twice in 18 months; first in May 2011 when completion of the first of the threeship class was delayed by a year until December 2015, and again this September when delivery was pushed back another four months to March 2016 and the keelto-keel interval between ships was extended from 12 to 18 months. Ship Two will now follow in September 2017 and Ship Three in March 2019.

While the first delay was caused the need to reallocate the construction of ship blocks due to a production bottleneck, the second is intended to both help avoid a decline in naval shipbuilding skills prior to work beginning on the Future Submarine, and to reduce Navy’s challenge in introducing the AWD and LHD at much the same time.

The delayed expenditure of $100 million will also assist in achieving the government’s objective of a budget surplus, a point acknowledged by Defence Minister Stephen Smith. That said, industry has also been generally welcoming of the schedule change both in terms of reducing project risk, and retaining skilled personnel.

Notwithstanding these adjustments, Andrew Cawley, General Manager Programs at the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), says the schedule remains challenging – “not ridiculous otherwise it’s ignored, and not so slack that no one cares.

“We’re keeping the pace on and Ship One is genuinely a very busy work in progress; we’re going through the whole rebaselining down to detail that includes something like 40,000 activities. The year’s extension doesn’t apply to every worksite and every category of the workforce but it does apply to important parts of it.”

The keel-laying ceremony on 6 September involved two of the 30 pre-outfitted blocks (plus a separate composite sonar dome) that will make up each AWD. Three months later, a further four keel blocks had been or were in the process of being consolidated, and two accommodation blocks had been placed on top of the two original keel structures.

As of late November, all seven blocks being constructed by BAE Systems for Ship One had arrived at Osborne as had seven of the 14 Ship One blocks being made by Forgacs at Tomago and Carrington near Newcastle. ASC is constructing the other nine blocks at Osborne, and the sonar blocks for both Ship One and Ship Two will be delivered by Navantia next July.

Virtually the entire hull and superstructure should be completed by late next year, after which internal work will continue on long cable runs and setting systems to work.

Equipment

As construction proceeds, so does the delivery of equipment. Warehouses are filled with materiel ranging from galley units through to 5inch gun mounts, SPY 1D(V) phased array radar faces, Mk 41 missile vertical launch systems, GE LM 2500 gas turbines, diesel engines, and AN/SPQ-9B horizon-search radars.

Although the main reduction gearboxes have been received ready to be installed as the relevant hull sections are consolidated, the drive shafts and propellers have yet to arrive from Spain, as is much of the AEGIS combat system Capability Baseline 08 software.

“Some changes have to be made to the AEGIS software to cater for the fact that our ship is different to an American Arleigh Burke (missile destroyer) or an American Ticonderoga (cruiser),” Cawley explained to ADM.

“We have a different number of missile cells, the missile directors are in different places, this is basic data about the configuration of the ship. Otherwise we’re making so few changes to the core system that it’s more of a maintenance update than a major redevelopment.”

This situation has been facilitated by the Kongsberg-developed Australian Tactical Interface (ATI) architecture that provides an interface between AEGIS and Australian-specific subsystems such as the sonar and electronic warfare suites, VAMPIR infrared search and track, the electro-optic system, torpedo tubes, and close-in defence weapons.

Progressive testing of these and other subsystems has been underway both at vendors’ facilities, and at the land-based test site (LBTS) established by Raytheon Australia at Macquarie Park in Sydney.

A recent test validated the ability of the Babcock Australia-manufactured Mk32 Mod 9 torpedo launcher destined for the AWDs to fire a MU90 lightweight torpedo. The Mod 9 is an unusual “under and over” two-barrel led variant of the US triplebarrelled Mk32 launchers now equipping the RAN’s Anzacs and FFGs.

Uniquely, instead of being installed on deck, Mod 9 launcher assemblies will be installed port and starboard in the aft section of each AWD, discharging their torpedoes through a hatch in the side of the ship.

Cawley also reports worthwhile progress in development of the Ultra Electronics’ AWD sonar suite after Raytheon Australia as the combat system systems engineer put significant effort into ensuring the work was well-defined and well-structured.

“It was more a reorganisation to ensure the equipment that was needed in the shipyard got priority and software was ready when required. The system integrates a fairly mature hull-mounted sonar and a towed array; we’re developing some of the algorithms to improve performance but it hasn’t been installed on an F-100 design, so not everything to be done is just software,” Cawley notes.

“The large winch for the towed array has to be installed in the stern block in a way that fits and allows safe operation. That and the cabinets that have to be down there close to where the array comes into the ship all had to be designed by Navantia and Ultra, and that took quite a lot of time.”

As construction proceeds, the 2,500-strong AWD workforce at Osborne, Williamstown, Tomago and Carrington will be boosted from time to time by integration experts from Spain and the US.

One crucial task for specialists from ASC, Navantia and Bath Iron Works will be aligning each of the two gas turbines and diesel propulsion engines aboard each ship with a reduction gearbox, then aligning that with a drive shaft, stern gland and propeller.

“One engine room runs short to the stern and the other in front of it runs longer by the length of that machinery room, meaning one shaft is a lot longer than the other,” Cawley said. “It’s fairly standard but it doesn’t make it a simple task.

“The power in these systems means you must have very precise alignment and balance otherwise you can easily get vibrations which affect the radiated noise of the ship and can affect your ability to get full power. You should try and use the same team to do all three ships which is one of the benefits of slipping the schedule; this means one team can set the one ship to work then move to the next ship, and then the next one.”

Timeline

What is not generally appreciated is that the date of an AWD’s delivery is not when it first leaves the ASC facility, but when it is eventually handed over by the DMO to the RAN for the navy’s own operational test and evaluation activities.

The hull is generally launched about 12 months prior to delivery – in the case of the future HMAS Hobart, sometime in early 2015. Six to seven months of final set to work is carried out at dockside on main machinery, and the combat system receives its final alignment. Several months of DMO sea trials are then followed by final remediation, preparation, signoff and handover to the RAN.

LHD

The hull of LHD01 arrived in Port Phillip Bay on 17 October aboard the heavy lift ship Blue Marlin, with more than 700 tonnes of welded steel girders dedicated to keeping the 230 metre long structure stable during its nine-week voyage from Spain. The girders then had to be cut away and the ship floated off and towed to Williamstown, arriving nine days later.

Ventilation, lighting and alarm systems were activated over several days after which the first of the four blocks making up the superstructure – all of broadly similar dimensions and weighing between 250 and 300 tonnes – was lifted onto the hull, and welded into place in a 24-hour long exercise.

Prior to that, measurements of the flight deck and the underlying strength structure had been established to within 10mm to enable “the green “ – steel beyond the anticipated dimensions (normal ship building practice) – to be cut from the block before it was moved to the hull.

Installation was dependent on calm conditions to avoid ship movement, all four blocks were in place well before Christmas.

Given that sea trials are currently set for late 2013 (and delivery for early 2014), weather-induced or any other delays represent risk to a tight schedule. This applies equally to Ship Two, which barring unforeseen circumstances will arrive in Australia in the first quarter of 2014 and be handed over to the RAN in August 2015. On completion of superstructure consolidation on LHD01, attention will turn to connecting power, ventilation and fluids to the superstructure followed by the installation, integration and testing of electronic systems.

“The main hull has been fully outfitted so it’s got all the, pods, diesel generators, transformers, machinery control systems, fire mains, sea water, fresh water, and a lot of that has been tested and set to work,” Cawley told ADM.

“There are some tests to be completed, there’s some minor work to be completed, and we have to inspect more than 1,000 compartments prior to the Commonwealth accepting the ship, and that is not a trivial exercise”.

The 9LV Mk3E combat management system (CMS) produced by Saab Systems for the Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) project for the RAN’s Anzac class frigates is also destined for the LHDs. This is a new generation, open architecture system that is both modular and scalable, allowing for a variety of configurations.

Aboard the LHDs, the CMS must not only bring all the ship’s sensors, communications and weapon into a single, highly-integrated entity, but must also handle the additional complexities involved in watercraft and helicopter operations.

According to Cawley, development is still underway at the Williamstown LBTS and the requirements for final certification will include a satisfactory 48-hour stability test.

While considerable derisking can be achieved at the LBTS, such a facility is not able to simulate all the dynamics of the ship or the isolation from surrounding electro-magnetic influences. This means testing of the CMS and the primary surveillance radar must take place aboard after completion of the superstructure construction and fitout.

Unusually for such large and important combat assets, the LHDs’ self-defence capability will be limited to four Typhoon 25mm remote weapon systems, one on each corner of the flight deck. The Nulka active missile decoy system will be fitted on the LHDs soon after delivery to the RAN, Defence has confirmed.