Sea Power: The 70-year old Navy | ADM April 2012

Nick Lee-Frampton | Wellington

Cuts in defence spending make the business of running a Navy challenging, but given Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Tony Parr, walks 90 minutes a day to and from the Headquarters of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), his transport footprint, at least, surely is beyond cutting.Moreover, he embraces technology that diminishes the need for manpower.

RADM Parr told ADM that the RNZN needs to be mindful of the number of people it has at sea.

“Any technology that means less people, I am up for it straight away,” he told ADM. “I’m very keen on technology based solutions to manpower issues. For example, the upgrade on our frigates will mean the entire ships machinery — plant, electrical power generation, heating and ventilating, pumping and flooding — will be run from a console on the bridge.”

While the frigates’ mid-life upgrade program appears to be on schedule, the work to remedy various deficiencies in the 9,000 tonne sealift ship Canterbury (commissioned in June 2007, pictured) continues. Canterbury is scheduled for an extensive maintenance and remedial period starting in August and the issues, says RADM Parr, “fall in to two big bundles.”

“First is the platform systems, then there are the mission systems. What we are addressing first is the platform systems and the main one is to sort out the RHIB stowage arrangements. The RHIB alcoves will be shifted for’ard and up from where they are now, to about mid’ships. And the current gangway arrangements will be redesigned and replaced.

“What we really need to address in the ship’s mission systems is the ship-to-shore transfer system. Up to now I believe we have demonstrated and proved the sealift capability of the ship quite well, but we haven’t fully realised the range of ship-to-shore movement options.”

ADM asked if this meant changes to Canterbury’s two existing 59 tonne landing craft.

“That’s the intent at the moment. The thrust of the remediation program is to sort out the platform systems first but the big mission system that needs sorting out is the ship-to-shore transfer system.”

So, asked ADM, will Canterbury be fully fit after the next refit?

“No, not quite,” laughed RADM Parr. “It’s going to be about a five-year process, this roll-out. Over this next period we will certainly address the alcove issue, the stability issue and the gangway issue as well, that will take about five months from August of this year.  The work will be done at Devonport Naval Base.”

ADM asked what lessons had been learned from the Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Wellington’s recent voyages to the Arctic.

“We’ve been down there twice now in the summer months. The ship has performed very well, with only a few niggles. For example, the windscreen wipers and some upper deck fittings succumbed to the cold when they were down there.”

However, said RADM Parr, the Arctic weather, although challenging, did not allow the ship’s capabilities to be fully assessed.

“We’re fitting a broadband satellite capability as we speak and a few other mission systems which we have developed internally, including an indigenous electronic support measures system. That will go on the IPVs (Inshore Patrol Vessels) as well.”

ADM enquired about warranty claims on the patrol vessels.

“It takes a good three or four years for a ship to bed in. There are always a few niggles, some of which will come down to warranty claims. One we have had recently is the bilge keels that became detached on the IPVs.”

But, said ADM, with fewer than 2,000 personnel, does Navy have the numbers to run itself?

“We need around 2,000-2,200 people to run the Navy optimally, in terms of outputs, but we are actually capped at just short of 2,000. With a small organisation like ours where retention of the right numbers of the right people is a constant challenge, HR management issues can quite easily become focussed on one, perhaps small, trade that is nevertheless vital to the enterprise. Achieving balance here is a massive challenge for us.”

Turning to the sharp end, ADM queried the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare(ASW) capability.

“We have just acquired the Mk 46, Mod 5 torpedo. The Mod 5 is an interim step until we acquire an ASW torpedo which will parallel the frigates’ mission systems upgrade. This upgrade will address the hull mounted sonar we currently have fitted, the Spherion B.

“We continue to train in ASW; our Principal Warfare Officers do a full ASW package. ASW continues to be an important warfare discipline for us in which we spend much time in tactics and procedures. I think it’s most important that we don’t drop the ASW ball as we look to the future.”

The 2010 Defence White Paper mentioned acquiring a Littoral Warfare Support Vessel (LWSV), said ADM.

“We have usefully combined three arms of littoral underwater warfare: military hydrography, mine countermeasures and diving in one group, deployed from Resolution and Manawanui. Resolution will be de-commissioned in April. Her utility, other than for deep water hydrographic survey, is limited. She does 11 knots and draws five metres, hardly an LWS platform.

“Manawanui, our diving support ship since 1988, is now quite long in the tooth, so the intention is to replace both ships with a single LWS platform. We don’t yet know what size or shape that platform will take, but that’s the intention. In the interim, we will retain Manawanui until we get a replacement LWS platform.

“The multi-beam echo-sounder, currently in Resolution, is portable between ships so it’s intended that we will be able to deploy our hydrographic capability, including survey motor boats, from an OPV until such time as we get an LWS platform. We will have the first OPV configured to take the echo sounder by the end of 2012.”

ADM asked about planning for replacing the fleet tanker, Endeavour.

“The project to replace Endeavour is progressing very well. The requirement to both project and sustain maritime, land and air forces in joint and combined operations is well understood. For us the decision will come down to what mix of sealift/commodity capacity is desirable — and how big the platform needs to be.”

ADM asked RADM Parr what technology had caught his eye.

“We have such a huge reliance now on satellite communications. We need to be mindful that the usefulness of legacy systems, HF and UHF, are not lost. I was in Chile last year and we were briefed on the reaction to the devastating tsunami and earthquake they had. Such was the destruction that the only means of long haul communication they had for a long period of time in the aftermath was HF.

“We are going to be under significant financial constraint and restraint for a few years yet and we’re going to have to be careful how we navigate through that. It’s important that we retain this idea of being part of the Service and not part of a corporation or a business. All of us understand that we didn’t join for the money, but we did join for something. And that something needs to be preserved!”