A call for tenders has been issued for a capability life-cycle manager (CLCM) to maintain Royal Australian Navy’s Hobart-class destroyers. This is a significant milestone for Plan Galileo, which is a response to the Australian Government’s National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise that will provide the nation with its greatest naval capability regeneration since World War II. The Hobart-class destroyers will be the first major class of ship to be sustained through a CLCM arrangement, which has been timed to support the Hobart-class destroyer upgrade project. Plan Galileo will ensure the significantly larger and more complex fleet that will result is effectively sustained. Australian industry will continue to be a key partner as we further develop and implement this approach to sustaining our fleet
The CLCM will work collaboratively with personnel in Defence’s Systems Program Office, which oversees the sustainment and maintenance of the Hobart-class destroyers, as well as other organisations providing through-life asset management for the class. The CLCM will implement a common baseline of systems, standard processes and contractual terms to drive commonality across Navy assets. This will ensure a more effective use of resources and aim to reduce the complexity for the supply chain for future capabilities. The CLCM’s role is critical to asset management and engineering functions, optimising an asset’s capability, including cost-effective vessel sustainment, and providing capability enhancement and integration services for capability updates and upgrades required over time.
Head Maritime Systems in Defence’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group Rear Admiral Wendy Malcolm said, “ CLCMs would be a key element of the new innovative way that Defence and industry work together to sustain the Navy’s existing and future fleet. Our new approach to sustainment under Plan Galileo will deliver sustainment support to the larger and more complex fleet that will result from the continuous naval shipbuilding program. We will work with the CLCM to collaboratively develop sovereign sustainment capability so that Defence is more self-reliant in sustainment. Our new approach in working together will ultimately support Australian industry through job opportunities, removing barriers to entry into the Defence maritime sector and providing more certainty to plan and invest”.
The Hobart class is a ship class of three air warfare destroyers (AWDs) built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for ships to replace the Adelaide-class frigates and restore the capability last exhibited by the Perth-class destroyers began by 2000, initially under acquisition project SEA 1400, which was re-designated SEA 4000. Although the designation “Air Warfare Destroyer” is used to describe ships dedicated to the defence of a naval force (plus assets ashore) from aircraft and missile attack, the planned Australian destroyers are expected to also operate in anti-surface, anti-submarine, and naval gunfire support roles. Each ship’s main weapon is a 48-cell Mark 41 Vertical Launch System.[7] The cells are capable of firing the RIM-66 Standard 2 anti-aircraft missile or the quad-packed RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow point-defence missile.
