Australia — Special Operations Capability Vehicle Enhancements

Anzac Ship Elec­tron­ic Sup­port Sys­tem Upgrade, Enhanced ADF Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Net­works, and Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Capa­bil­i­ty Vehi­cle Enhance­ments
The Min­is­ter for Defence, Stephen Smith MP, and the Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel, Jason Clare MP, announced today that the Gov­ern­ment has giv­en First Pass Approval for three major Defence capa­bil­i­ty projects: upgrades to the Anzac class frigates’ elec­tron­ic sup­port sys­tems; enhance­ments to the Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­works; and enhance­ments to the ADF’s Spe­cial Oper­a­tions vehi­cles and com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

These three projects com­bined are esti­mat­ed to involve expen­di­ture of between $500 mil­lion and around $1 bil­lion by the time they are complete.

Anzac Ship Elec­tron­ic Sup­port Sys­tem Upgrade

The Gov­ern­ment has agreed to upgrade the Anzac class frigates’ elec­tron­ic sup­port sys­tems, through Project Sea 1448 Phase 4A, as a com­ple­men­tary capa­bil­i­ty with­in the ongo­ing Anzac anti-ship mis­sile defence program.

Project Sea 1448 Phase 4A is cost capped between $100 mil­lion and $300 mil­lion. The Gov­ern­ment is expect­ed to make a final deci­sion on approval for the project in the peri­od 2012 to 2013.

The elec­tron­ic sup­port sys­tem upgrade will pro­vide the Anzac class frigates with the abil­i­ty to detect, clas­si­fy and locate the lat­est gen­er­a­tion of mar­itime and air­craft radars, as well as the lat­est anti-ship missiles. 

This upgrade will give the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy’s Anzac class frigates a greater lev­el of oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty with­in the rapid­ly increas­ing com­plex­i­ty of mod­ern radar sys­tems. It will also improve the abil­i­ty of the frigates to sup­port the Navy’s future Air War­fare Destroy­er capability.

Enhanced Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Net­works for the ADF

Enhance­ment of the ADF’s fixed telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­works, to be under­tak­en through Joint Project 2047 Phase 3, will enhance Defence’s infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­o­gy (ICT) services. 

Joint Project 2047 Phase 3 is cost capped between $300 mil­lion and $500 mil­lion. The Gov­ern­ment is expect­ed to make a final deci­sion on approval for the project in 2011–2012. The Defence telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work includes 330 sites in Aus­tralia sup­port­ing some 100,000 users in Aus­tralia and over­seas. The project will sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve net­work per­for­mance and meet capa­bil­i­ty require­ments into the 2020’s.

Enhance­ments to Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Vehi­cles and Communications

The Gov­ern­ment has also giv­en first pass approval for Joint Project 2097 Phase 1B to enhance the Aus­tralian Defence Force’s Spe­cial Oper­a­tions vehi­cle capability.

The project will deliv­er a mod­ern fleet of tac­ti­cal Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Vehi­cles and will pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments to the Spe­cial Forces’ net­worked communications.

Joint Project 2097 Phase 1B is cost capped between $100 mil­lion and $300 mil­lion. The Gov­ern­ment is expect­ed to make a final deci­sion on approval for the project in 2013–14.

The enhance­ments to be deliv­ered under JP 2097 Phase 1B will sup­port the tac­ti­cal manoeu­vre of Spe­cial Forces and improve the effi­cien­cy of tac­ti­cal net­work com­mu­ni­ca­tions across the full spec­trum of Spe­cial Oper­a­tions. The vehi­cles will be high­ly mobile and able to be trans­port­ed in a range of ADF air­craft and ships allow­ing the ADF’s Spe­cial Forces to main­tain its capa­bil­i­ty edge. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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