27 May 15. Australia to reform defense acquisition. The long-awaited Australian defense white paper will likely be released in July, fulfilling a promise made when the Liberal government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott took office in late 2009. The document will spell out Australia’s strategic defense priorities for the foreseeable future and the attendant Defence Capability Plan (DCP) will include new acquisition projects over the coming decade. The DCP likely will include new frigates and submarines for the Royal Australian Navy, an armed unmanned aerial system and VIP aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and follow-on orders of armored fighting vehicles for the Australian Army — capabilities the white paper probably will underscore. The new equipment will be in addition to current acquisition projects, which include three air warfare destroyers (AWDs), 72 joint strike fighters and the first tranche of the Land Combat Vehicle System (LCVS) program of mounted combat reconnaissance vehicles. But the defense organization as a whole is facing reorganization, with far-reaching implications for future procurement, following the First Principles Review, a report on the acquisition process released April 1 by Defence Minister Kevin Andrews. One result of the review: The Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), which performs acquisition and sustainment for the Australian Defence Force, is to be merged back into the force. DMO is staffed by a mix of civilian and uniformed personnel. The government pledged to undertake the review upon coming to power, and Andrews said the shortcomings it identified will be urgently addressed.
“These include a proliferation of structures, processes and systems with unclear accountabilities, which in turn cause institutional waste, delayed decisions, flawed execution, duplication, over-escalation and issues for decision, and low engagement levels amongst employees in parts of the organization,” Andrews said. “So this review proposes a transformational change across Defence, to ensure that it can deliver on future requirements that will be outlined in the government’s forthcoming white paper and related documents. To achieve this, Defence must move from a current inefficient federated approach into a single, integrated organization that delivers an enhanced joint capacity.”
The report is titled “Creating One Defence,” and the majority of its 75 findings agreed to by the government will be implemented over the next two years. While the specifics of future acquisition will not be fully known until the white paper’s release, significant capabilities have been added to all three services in recent years, and this is set to continue with the government’s promise to return spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2023-24. Andrews reiterated that commitment April 1. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) received the first two of 72 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighters last year and this year will receive its first Alenia Aermacchi C-27J Spartan battlefield airlifters. In July, the first Boeing EA-18G Growler is due to roll off the production line in St. Louis and, after a period of testing with the US Navy, will be delivered to the RAAF. This will mark the first export for Growler and from 2017 the RAAF will be the only service outside the US Navy to have a dedicated airborne electronic attack capability. Australian crews are already training with the US Navy at Whidbey Island, and some will be posted to US expeditionary Growler squadrons on completion.
“We need time to not only complete Growler training, but also understand how to properly support, task and operate the aircraft, because it is a capability the ADF has never had before,” said Wing Commander Paul Jarvis, the acting director of the RAAF EA-18G Transition Team. “It will enhance ADF awareness in the electro-magnetic spectrum.”
The Royal Australian Navy commissioned the first of two 28,000-metric-ton landing