Sea Power: Success for ASMD in sight | ADM Apr 2011
Gregor Ferguson | Sydney
Fingers crossed - by the time this edition of ADM is published, the Anzac frigate Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) program may be close to achieving long-anticipated success.
Last year minister for defence materiel Jason Clare, took the unprecedented step of actually naming the acquisition projects which had been placed on the DMO’s celebrated Projects of Concern (POC) list. One of them took observers by surprise: Project Sea 1448 Ph.2b - the Anzac ship Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) project.
To the best of ADM’s knowledge this project hadn’t encountered significant technical difficulties or delays and in fact was understood to be progressing well in spite of the technical risks associated with the new CEAFAR and CEAMOUNT Phased Array Radars (PAR) being integrated onto the lead ship, HMAS Perth. That said, ADM understands there were minor, inevitable teething troubles with both the upgraded combat system and new infra red search and track system (IRST); these were solved but couldn’t be validated and verified until the entire upgrade package went to sea for the first time.
Industry sources contacted by ADM confirmed the project was going well but were resigned none the less to the fact the project would be subjected to searching and potentially hostile scrutiny.
It was the technical risk rather than any project delays or difficulties which put the project onto the POC list. A Defence source told ADM: “There have been no areas of under performance for this Project. As has been highlighted in the 2009-2010 DMO Major Projects Review (MPR) this Project, being developmental in nature, has been declared as high risk since inception. During late 2007 it was determined from system engineering reviews and DSTO modelling and analysis that the integration of the phased array radar with the existing Anzac-class radar systems suggested that existing financial provisions were insufficient to deliver an eight ship Program without a real cost increase.
“As a direct result, Defence reviewed the acquisition strategy for the Project and modified it to a single ship installation that would need to prove the capability at sea before consideration was given by Government to install into the remaining ships within the Class. Government agreed to this updated strategy in July 2009. To closely track the progress under the single ship acquisition strategy, this Project was placed on the POC list.”
Project Sea 1448 Phase 2B is the culmination of the Anzac ASMD program: it fuses together the CEAFAR and CEAMOUNT radars, the SAGEM VAMPIR IRST system, the Kelvin Hughes Sharp Eye navigation radar and a significant capability upgrade to the Saab 9LV Mk3E Combat management System (CMS) which integrates these capabilities into a single, flexible whole. The six-face CEAFAR radar mounted on a cupola atop the heightened main mast detects incoming targets and slaves the four-face CEAMOUNT immediately below it to illuminate these for the ship’s Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM).
The technical risk in this project is significant – all involved parties acknowledge this. The major source of risk is the two PARs, developed by CEA Technologies in Canberra. The IRST and navigation radar upgrades compound the risk but needed to be installed, validated and verified at the same time as the PARs and the upgraded CMS as part of a fully integrated ASMD package.
The original plan was to sign a single contract to upgrade all eight Anzac frigates, but the technical and costs risks in the program led to the adoption of a “1 + 7” acquisition strategy where a lead ship would be upgraded and tested before approval was granted to upgrade the remaining seven ships. This revised approach included a risk reduction process which saw an opportunistic sea trial aboard HMAS Perth in late-2008 when the ship, various exercise assets and a radar all became available at the same time to conduct a limited sea trial of the CEAFAR system. As noted previously in ADM, this proved to be a great success; this and a subsequent shore based trial in 2009 led to approval at the end of that year for the first article installation aboard HMAS Perth.
The ship has undergone extensive modification by constructor BAE Systems at the maritime Common User Facility (CUF) at Henderson, WA. The installation was completed in November 2010 and HMAS Perth was towed to Fleet Base West to begin harbour acceptance testing. The RAN was smart enough not to set a firm deadline for the start of sea trials: the ship has been alongside for months and any number of minor platform or propulsion related snags could have delayed her return to sea and could have been misinterpreted as symptomatic of a larger problem.
The initial harbour acceptance testing was carried out in December and January while HMAS Perth was alongside at Fleet Base West using RAAF and other aircraft as targets for the radars and IRST.
“Results to date of the integrated phased array radar system ... have been pleasing, achieving the expected level of integration during testing conducted to date,” a Defence source told ADM.
The ship went to sea - on schedule - at the end of February and at the time of writing was into its third week of testing. The test program includes all the capability that was originally required to be delivered as part of the lead ship trials. It will verify and validate Stage 1 of the software delivery, which takes the Anzac-class from a single channel of fire to five (the existing CEROS200 fire control director plus four CEAMOUNT channels of fire).
The Defence and industry sources consulted by ADM are all cautiously optimistic. The initial results of the sea trials have all been positive, according to one industry source, while a Defence source told ADM: “There is a significant number of tests that are still required to fully validate and verify the phased array radar system and its integration into the combat management system.
“Having said this, the results that have been achieved, including air, surface tracking and simulated engagements of aircraft have demonstrated that the system is performing as expected. Full results of the sea testing should be known by mid-2011 after the formal reports have been completed.”
The major test of the upgrade’s success is expected in April when ADM understands HMAS Perth will undertake a complete engagement against an air target off the West Coast using the full capabilities of the Stage 1 upgrade.
Stage 2 of the approved ASMD capability will be achieved through a software update in 2013. This will significantly increase the number of fire control channels available from the CEAMOUNT system, Defence says.
In the meantime, assuming the current trials program is successful, Defence plans to go back to Government later in 2011 to recommend the ASMD installation in the remaining seven Anzac-class ships.
“Based on currently available data (including experience with HMAS Perth), and provided Government approves installation into the remaining ships, the intended completion date is currently late 2018,” ADM was told by defence sources. “It should be noted however, that other non-ASMD related projects may also be installed during this period and this may extend the final ship upgrade installation date.”
These could include the ESM upgrade for the Anzac ships under Sea 1448 Ph.4A which received 1st Pass Approval back in February this year. However, Defence doesn’t believe this will impinge on Phase 2B as they are independent projects.
“Project schedules will be examined to determine the most opportune time to install the ESM,” Defence sources said.
The Anzac ASMD program has taken some time to each its current promising position. An indication of the capability of the PAR system is defence’s decision not to proceed with the acquisition of a Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSRAD) as a last-ditch defence against anti-ship missiles. This was included as a hedge against possible shortfalls in CEAFAR/CEAMOUNT performance; the trials conducted to date have shown that these sensors have the range, resolution and discrimination to detect incoming targets and guide the ship’s ESSM missiles with sufficient accuracy to render a VSRAD unnecessary.
In many respects the Anzac frigate ASMD program is a model of its kind. It is also an anomaly in the current defence business environment because it is a high-technology, high-risk developmental project which, almost by definition, requires a close and enduring partnership between the contractors and the customer. This isn’t something Defence has always been comfortable with as it requires an early decision to concentrate on a promising technology development and reduces its ability to stage a competition.
In contrast with previous such projects which have been covered by a single fixed price contract with a firm delivery deadline, the risk management and mitigation in Project Sea 1448 Ph.2B has been exemplary. Defence has sought to identify and mitigate risks in a logical but reasonably brisk sequence, which has calibrated accurately the expectations of all parties and kept a firm rein on cost and schedule.
CEA Technologies was understandably concerned at the production delays resulting from the changed acquisition strategy. However, as described in the 2010 Defence Industry Policy Statement, PAR technology is a Priority Industry Capability (PIC), and Defence agreed to a graduated release of project funding to acquire PAR parts for all eight ships and to cover production of sub-assemblies for ships two and three. This both sustains CEA Technologies and its suppliers through the trials phase and ensures a rapid production ramp-up once approval is given to upgrade ships two to eight.
All that said, it’s likely that some of the equipment installed on the last two or three ships will be obsolescent, if not actually obsolete, before installation.
Some sort of minor upgrade of IT components - for example in the CMS, though not in the PARs themselves - will almost certainly be required to manage obsolescence. But achieving this on a system, which actually works and is proven in service, is infinitely easier than trying to implement it on a system which is still undergoing a protracted and possibly quite painful development process – a hard lesson learned from the Collins-class submarine project.
It’s still too early to declare victory in Sea 1448 Ph 2B, but the omens are good. Importantly, the project has created an effective template for managing risky, developmental programs which echoes successful project management practices followed overseas. It addresses the ambiguities and uncertainties inherent in high-technology projects and could expand the comfort zone for Defence, the DMO and the Government when contemplating developmental projects in the future, whether indigenous or involving overseas prime contractors.