The 110-page report calls for fundamental changes to the structure of the Australian Defence Force to counter modern and emerging threats, but does so at the expense of capability acquisition and base infrastructure projects. While some efforts will simply undergo a delay or “re-scoping,” others will get canceled outright.

The review was conducted over several months by Angus Houston, a former Australian Defence Force chief, and Stephen Smith, a former defense minister. The effort was “the most ambitious review of Defence’s posture and structure since the Second World War,” according to the document.

“A large-scale conventional and non-conventional military build-up without strategic reassurance is contributing to the most challenging circumstances in our region for decades,” Defence Minister Richard Marles stated in his introduction to the report. “Combined with rising tensions and reduced warning time for conflict, the risks of military escalation or miscalculation are rising.”

The report also said the United States is no longer the unipolar leader in the region amid a return to strategic competition among major powers.

“As a consequence, for the first time in 80 years, we must go back to fundamentals, to take a first-principles approach as to how we manage and seek to avoid the highest level of strategic risk we now face as a nation: the prospect of major conflict in the region that directly threatens our national interest,” the report read. “Strategically, we may have already entered a decisive period for the Indo-Pacific. As a result, our ability to address the reduced strategic warning time identified in the 2020 Defence Strategic Update has come into sharper relief.”

That 2020 document acknowledged Australia’s traditionally held view that the nation would have a decade of warning time to prepare itself for conflict no longer applied. The latest Defence Strategic Review takes this one step further, calling for a three-stage strategy beginning with a two-year period between now and 2025 to address “matters which must be prioritised and addressed urgently.” A second period would follow between 2026 and 2030, and then a third “beyond 2031.”

The Defence Strategic Review also recommended the government commission a new version every two years in place of the sporadically released defense whitepapers of the past.

Furthermore, it calls for a change in the military’s Defence of Australia doctrine — adhered to over the past 50 years — to one which will see a more integrated force able to respond to rapidly changing risks.

“The current Australian Defence Force (ADF) force structure is based on a ‘balanced force’ model that reflects a bygone era. It does not adequately address our new strategic environment,” the review stated. “The ADF needs a much more focused force that can respond to the risks we face. It should be informed by net assessment and able to effect a strategy of denial.”

For the first time, the review addresses the need to harden Australia’s air bases and secure fuel supplies against attack from Australia’s north. In the past, these were couched in general terms; there are currently no hardened defense facilities.

Capability needs

The review calls for the military to apply several “critical capabilities,” including:

• Maritime drones that can perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions on the surface and underwater.
• An enhanced integrated targeting capability.
• Enhanced long-range precision strike weapons for all domains of warfare.
• An amphibious-capable combined-arms land system.
• All-domain maritime capabilities for sea-denial operations.
• A networked expeditionary air operations capability.
• An enhanced integrated air and missile defense system.
• A joint and expeditionary theater-logistics system.
• A theater command-and-control network.
• A network of northern bases for logistics support, denial and deterrence.

The Royal Australian Navy’s plan to acquire a nuclear-powered attack submarine under the AUKUS framework is also a linchpin of the new Defence Strategic Review, as is the government’s continuous naval shipbuilding strategy. The AUKUS deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is meant to improve information and technology sharing efforts between the allies.

“The acquisition of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines will transform Navy’s capability,” the report read. “Nuclear-powered submarines are key assets both in effecting a strategy of denial and in the provision of anti-submarine warfare and long-range strike options.”

The government should expand efforts to acquire long-range precision strike weapons, including the recently announced plan to buy the American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, and support plans to co-develop and purchase the American-made Precision Strike Missile, according to the review.

The military should also speed up the Army’s littoral combat maneuver program, the report said.

“Defence must rapidly accelerate and expand Army’s littoral manoeuvre vessels (medium and heavy landing craft) and long-range fires (land-based maritime strike) programs. This will require Army to re-posture key capabilities,” the document stated. “It is essential to immediately accelerate the acquisition of Land 8710 Phases 1 & 2 — Army Littoral Manoeuvre Vessels (Landing Craft Medium and Heavy) and expand the scope of this capability. Without this, only limited numbers of major land capabilities can be projected offshore.”

Change of plans

Meanwhile, cuts are to be made to fund the military’s future model. Key among these is confirmation that Army’s Land 400 Phase 3 program for a tracked infantry fighting vehicle — with an estimated value of AU$25 billion (U.S. $17 billion) — will be slashed from 450 vehicles to 129. That new quantity could equip a single mechanized battalion for littoral maneuver.

The second phase of the Army’s Land 8116 protected mobile fires project — an effort to acquire 30 more AS9 self-propelled howitzers and K10 ammunition resupply vehicles made by South Korea’s Hanwha — would also get scrapped under the review’s plan.

Furthermore, the review calls for an independent analysis of the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatants by the end of the third quarter of this year. This could impact the service’s plans to build nine Hunter-class frigates and the generally unarmed Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels.

The report also quashes a suggestion that the Royal Australian Air Force acquire a small number of Northrop Grumman-made B-21 Raider strategic bombers.

“The Review has undertaken detailed discussions in Australia and the United States in relation to the B-21 Raider as a potential capability option for Australia. In light of our strategic circumstances and the approach to Defence strategy and capability development outlined in this Review, we do not consider the B-21 to be a suitable option for consideration for acquisition,” it stated.

The Defence Strategic Review also calls for a reform of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group’s acquisition policy, labeling it as unsuitable for Australia’s current strategic circumstances. The group falls under the purview of the Defence Department.

Instead, in what appears to be a major blow for the Australian defense industry, the document calls for the rapid acquisition of more capabilities via a “sole source or off-the-shelf procurement” mechanism.

While applauding the forward-looking aspect of the review, Tim Dore, who serves as acting CEO of the defense industry trade association Defence Teaming Centre, warned of problems ahead for local business.

“We understand why the significant overhaul was needed. We are in a considerably different geopolitical environment than in 2020, and the DTC appreciates the government requesting the review early on in their tenure,” Dore said.

“However, there are numerous businesses who have lost out on work and who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments they had made to upskill their workforce and equipment based on Defence’s previous requirements, only to see the Government’s direction once again change. Neither the taxpayer nor the warfighter benefits from this indecision,” Dore added.

The Australian government has agreed — at least in principle — to all of the report’s recommendations. Further details regarding defense funding are expected to come in the federal budget on May 9.

The incident comes a month after Australia’s second-largest wireless telecommunications carrier, Optus, became aware that personal data of more than one-third of the country’s population of 26 million had been stolen.

But these hacks represent just a small portion of the cyberattacks that target Australia. “Throughout recent years, Australia has been targeted by a range of actors conducting cyber operations that pose a significant threat to our security,” Rachel Noble, who heads the Australian Signals Directorate, wrote in a document outlining Redspice, the government’s plan to bolster its cyber capabilities.

Redspice — which stands for Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber, Enablers — is set to receive AU$9.9 billion (U.S. $6.3 billion) over the next decade, the government of then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in March.

The funding represents the largest-ever investment in Australia’s national cyber and intelligence capabilities.

Where will the money come from?

Formed 75 years ago, the Australian Signals Directorate, or ASD, is part of the Defence Department and is entrusted to provide foreign signals intelligence, cybersecurity advice and offensive cyber operations to meet the needs of the department and the military.

The funding for Redspice is meant to triple Australia’s current offensive cyber capability, double its persistent digital hunting activities, develop advanced artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities, and quadruple the global footprint of ASD. It’s also meant to bring on 1,900 new employees and open offices in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne.

“This investment in ASD recognizes the deteriorating strategic circumstances in our region, characterized by rapid military expansion, growing coercive behavior and increased cyberattacks. It acknowledges the nature of conflict has changed, with cyberattacks now commonly preceding other forms of military intervention — most recently demonstrated by offensive cyber activity against Ukraine,” then-Defence Minister Peter Dutton said in March.

“Redspice ensures Australia keeps pace with the rapid growth of cyber capabilities of potential adversaries. It provides new intelligence capabilities, new cyber defence capabilities to protect our most critical systems, and is a real increase in the potency to strike back in cyberspace,” he added.

While the exact capabilities and activities of ASD are a closely guarded secret, Noble provided some details when she testified in April before a Senate panel on government spending.

“Our job in ASD is as an operational agency with particular regard to cybersecurity — so providing technical advice and assistance to all Australians,” Noble said. “That’s a very different role to the Office of National Intelligence, which is to essentially provide strategic intelligence assessment[s].”

The director general added that the “vast amount” of increased capability to be delivered will come from the increased workforce and the establishment of the new offices around the country.

Although the funding stretches over 10 years, Noble said, the workforce would triple by the 2026-2027 time frame — growing by 400 personnel in 2023-2024; 600 in 2024-2035; 500 in 2025-2026; and about 200 in 2026-2027.

According to the first budget released by the current government on Oct. 25, spending in the 2021-2022 financial year was AU$1.17 billion. Redspice will see funding for 2022-2023 rise to AU$1.7 billion, and then AU$2.32 billion for 2023-2024.

With Redspice funding at AU$9.9 billion over 10 years, AU$4.2 billion of that has to be found in the four-year forward estimates period. (Australia’s forward estimates include the level of expenses proposed by the government for future years, based on economic, demographic and forecasting assumptions.)

Of the AU$4.2 billion, only AU$588.7 million will be new money, requiring AU$3.6 billion to come from the Defence Department’s Integrated Investment Program, a fully funded plan meant to set the course for defense acquisition over future years. In other words, if a project is listed as part of the program, funding is available for that project over the specified time frame. It is unusual — but not unheard of — for a project to be removed from the IIP.

It’s unclear where the remainder of the funding total will come from.

So far, this has resulted in the cancelation of the Royal Australian Air Force’s AU$1.3 billion MQ-9B SkyGuardian armed drone program. The direct link was confirmed before a Senate hearing by Matt Yannopoulous, in the acting role of defense secretary. Deliveries were expected to begin in the middle of this decade under Project Air 7003 Phase 1.

Australia chose to ax the SkyGuardian procurement effort because it had yet to reach Gate 2 approval, and was therefore easier to cancel. However, the new defense minister, Richard Marles, has promised to study the previous government’s decision as part of a Defence Strategic Review to be completed in the first half of 2023.

Another major defense acquisition effort yet to gain Gate 2 approval is the Army’s Land 400 Phase 3 Infantry Fighting Vehicle program, worth AU$18-$27 billion.

Up to 450 new IFVs — either Hanwha Defense’s AS21 Redback or Rheinmetall’s Lynx KF41 — are to replace the Army’s Vietnam-era M113 armored personnel carriers. However, both bidders have been told they must submit their respective bids based on an order of 300 vehicles, with options for three tranches of 50 vehicles each.

However, Defence Department officials have denied that vehicle quantity decrease is due to the need to fund Redspice, saying a government decision on Land 400 is yet to be made.

Still, a shortfall in funding remains in the forward estimates period. At least some of this funding shortfall will come from three existing ASD projects, which will now be subsumed under Redspice.

“None of [the three ASD projects] have been canceled. There was already funding in the IIP, and I’ll speak about them broadly because two of them in particular are highly classified,” Noble said at the Senate hearing. “One is for building our capability in signals intelligence mission systems; another is for offensive cyber; and one is for components of the CESAR [Cyber Enhanced Situational Awareness and Response] program.”

“The programs were funded in the IIP, but have now moved forward in time [and] are, in some respects, being subsumed and added [to Redspice]. Let’s take offensive cyber for example: We might have been on a pathway to deliver an offensive cyber capability, and now what Redspice is enabling is that, while we are on that pathway, we would do it sooner and have more money and capacity to do three times as much as what we were already,” she added.

No longer ‘business as usual’

Fergus Hanson, director of the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said Redspice is critical because of the massive increase in the Australian population’s digital footprint over the last decade.

“This has created major opportunities for both offense and defense, and there’s just no way a ‘business as usual’ approach could keep pace with the rate of change that we have in terms of digital uptake,” he told Defense News.

Hanson pointed to Australia’s membership in the intelligence-sharing alliance Five Eyes as also driving the financial investment.

“The urgency is partly geopolitical and partly just the pace of change in the digital world,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any world in which [Australia] can get close to the U.S. in cyber capability, but I think to remain a meaningful contributor in our areas of specialization is the ambition.”

He also cited the country’s deteriorating relationship with regional neighbor China, which has implemented trade sanctions against Australia, and the strategic defense agreement AUKUS, which will see Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States work together on nuclear-powered submarine technology.

“We used to believe that we didn’t have to choose between our largest trading partner and our most important ally, but with AUKUS we well and truly chose,” Hanson said. “China took a strategy of trying to push us to our limit and seeing if they could break us, and they ended up pushing us from one side to the other, so that to me adds up to Redspice.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MELBOURNE — Boeing Defence Australia is in the final stages of developing its Integrated-Battlefield Telecommunications Network for the Australian Army under Joint Project 2072 Phase 2B, and is now turning its attention to other local opportunities.

The Army’s name for the program is Project Currawong — in line with its tradition of naming communications systems after Australian bird species — and it is entering service with deployed Army units and the Royal Australian Air Force’s combat communications squadron.

I-BTN has been developed in-house by BDA and is a scalable and distributable telecommunications system which will form the digital backbone of the Army’s battlespace telecommunications. The intellectual property is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia.

Speaking on the eve of the Land Forces 2021 exhibition in Brisbane, Australia, on Monday, Boeing Defence Australia business development manager Darcy Rawlinson said the government recently granted approval for the firm to market the technology to members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. He specifically identified the U.K. and the Royal Australian Navy as potential near-term customers.

“The U.K. is looking at the [battlefield telecommunications] problem at the moment under Trinity program, and they have a very similar requirement to the Australian Army,” Rawlinson said. “They are looking for a wide-area network to connect their headquarters, and they also have additional responsibility to provide communications for large NATO headquarters. We have a scalable solution for that.”

Rawlinson added that the U.K. is currently approaching industry and that Boeing would respond through Boeing Defence UK. Under the plan, the U.K. unit would be responsible for the development of a local solution, based on the Currawong system, with much of the support and engineering work done in Australia by the local division.

“It will be a great opportunity for us and our existing supply chain because there will be more hardware built here in Australia,” he said.

The Royal Australian Navy is seeking to upgrade its Maritime Tactical Wide Area Network under its Sea1442 Phase 5 program and is expected to go to market later this year to canvas solutions. Rawlinson said a Currawong-based solution would meet the Navy’s requirements for an optimized, highly interoperable network capability and would benefit the Australian Defence Force in terms of amphibious operations and training.

“The Navy is looking for broadband connectivity across its major surface ships and they are seeking a capability which is able to evolve to meet future threats and requirements,” Rawlinson said. “The requirements are very similar to Army and RAAF requirements for Currawong. It makes sense for the ADF to share information across all three forces.”

The initial Joint Project 2072 Phase 2B contract was signed in 2015, with the first material release rolled out during 2017, providing a “black” — or unclassified — network capability.

The second release followed in 2020 and added features such as a troposcatter system, allowing beyond-line-of-sight communications up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) without reliance on satellite-based communications systems.

The third and final iteration of Currawong’s contracted development is now undergoing a test readiness review ahead of its system material release next year. The third release will add “red” — or protected, secret and coalition secret — networking and also a headquarters-on-the-move capability, able to be fitted into the Army’s G-Wagon fleet as well as the Hawkei and Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle fleets.

Under the budget request, funding for U.S. Navy MQ-4C acquisition will be suspended until at least FY23, and aircraft that was to be built in low-rate initial production Lots 6 and 7 will now be deferred.

However, the proposal leaves the door open for Triton production to recommence in 2023 while securing funds to complete development of the IFC 4 variant of the drone. This latter model is required by the U.S. Navy to replace its aging fleet of Lockheed Martin-made EP-3E Aries II aircraft used for signals reconnaissance.

Speaking in Canberra on March 4, Northrop’s chief executive in Australia, Chris Deeble, said the company’s proposal is to move forward production of five aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force into the current, and funded, low-rate initial production 5 batch during the two years the U.S. Navy might not buy the aircraft.

“PB21 has created an incredible opportunity for Australia. We’ve been working with the U.S. Navy to provide an option to buy the rest of their aircraft as part of the LRIP 5 contract,” Deeble said. “That provides a significant unit-cost saving to Australia, so now’s the time to buy more than ever.”

Australia has a requirement for six Tritons, built to the IFC 4 standard, under Project Air 7000 Phase 1B. However, it currently has only one aircraft on order, which would be built as part of LRIP 5 and requires a more finalized contract by May 15 if the plan is to go ahead.

Deeble said Australia will need to make a decision on the additional five aircraft by the end of June.

Northrop Grumman’s proposal is to add the five Australian aircraft to the existing three aircraft in LRIP 5 (two U.S. Navy and one RAAF aircraft), bringing the total to eight.

Deeble said the offer preserves Australia’s planned funding profile for Triton acquisition and that the delivery schedule will remain the same. Should Australia finalize an agreement to meet its six-Triton requirement, it expects to receive them between 2023 and 2025, with declaration of final operational capability in the 2025-2026 time frame.

“The two key points are, this will probably the best price you will be able to achieve for the Triton capability, and we’re remaining within the [Australian] defense profile,” Deeble added. “We also look to provide Australian industry opportunities as a consequence. And committing to an additional five aircraft in LRIP 5 will provide about AU$56 million [(U.S. $37 million)] of opportunity in that regard.”

Speaking at the 2019 Avalon Airshow, Brian Chappel, vice president and general manager of autonomous systems, said the Firebird could meet some of Australia’s project requirements, which is being managed through the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force.

“We haven’t directly spoken to the Australian government yet, but it’s an application and a mission set that we certainly believe has some applicability. We will be following that with Border Force very closely, [and] we have responded to the request for information,” Chappel said.

“We’re not just going to stand up and say: ‘We have a platform [and] it’s the right answer.’ We work closely with customers to determine what their mission sets are. Our response to the RFI is an architecture and it’s a set of capabilities,” he added.

Chappel also indicated that other, undisclosed platforms could be offered alongside Firebird, once more details of the commonwealth’s requirements are known.

Firebird is developed by Northrop subsidiary Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. Chappel said two prototypes are currently flying and a third will join the program shortly. Production aircraft will be built at an undisclosed location in Southern California.

Firebird is a medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft with a 30-hour endurance, with a nominal payload. Chappel said the aircraft has been tested with more than 24 different intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads, which can be swapped in 30 minutes. The initial customer is the U.S. government.

“We’re marketing the airplane now because it has gotten to the stage where the initial production program is assured and we wanted to make sure we were all good before we start talking,” Chappel said.

Group Capt. Jason Lind, the director of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare at Air Force Headquarters in Canberra, said the country has allocated AU$1.4 billion (U.S. $1 billion) for the acquisition of the aircraft and ground control systems. It’s expected the total spent over the life of the program will fall between AU$3 billion and AU$4 billion.

Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper forecast the requirement for seven Triton drones under Project Air 7000 Phase 1B to supplement the manned Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft with the Air Force’s Surveillance and Response Group. A decision to acquire six aircraft was announced by Defence Minister Christopher Pyne on June 26, representing Gate 2 (Second Pass) approval. A decision on the seventh aircraft will be made at a later date.

Australia is acquiring the multiple intelligence gathering version of the Triton, and the Gate 2 decision saw the firm order for the first aircraft, with the others to be added as milestones are achieved and as the variant matures in service with the U.S. Navy.

All aircraft are expected to be in service by mid-2025.

Lind said Australia has entered into a cooperative development program with the U.S. Navy to further develop the Triton, adding that eight Royal Australian Air Force personnel and defense officials are embedded in the U.S. program office. He said the program will leverage experience gained through a similar cooperative program currently in place for the P-8A.

“We have learned a lot of things and derived a lot of ‘goodness’ out of the Poseidon cooperative program, and we’ll be working closely with the U.S. Navy to further develop Triton and how we can leverage off some of their support methodologies as well,” Lind said.

“I think Triton brings something incredibly different to the RAAF and the wider Australian Defence Force.”

The concept is designed to perform the role of a loyal wingman to manned platforms and is being developed in partnership with the Royal Australian Air Force. A prototype is expected to fly in 2020.

The Airpower Teaming System was designed in Australia by Boeing Defence Australia and, according to Boeing Chief Technical Officer Greg Hyslop, the project represents the largest investment in the development of unmanned programs outside the United States.

“That is how much we believe in this program, its capabilities, its global business potential and our team here in Australia,” Hyslop said. “Today is a big day for Boeing and a big day for Australia.”

The program is intended to develop the system for use by both the RAAF and ‘Five Eyes’ partners and represents a significant defense export opportunity for Australia.

Speaking at the event, Australian Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne revealed that the Morrison government will contribute AU $40 million (U.S. $28.67 million) to the development of the system under Defence Project 6014 Phase 1 (Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Programme).

“This is the first [military] aircraft concept that Australia has invested in since the Boomerang [fighter] in 1942 to 1945, so it is a red-letter day,” Pyne said.

The funding will be used in conjunction with Boeing’s own investment in the program to develop three prototype air vehicles. Boeing officials say this will be a sufficient number to test the loyal wingman concept, which may see a manned platform operate in conjunction with between four and six vehicles in operational service.

The Airpower Teaming System is a semi-autonomous multi-mission system, capable of carrying (unspecified) weapons and able to be controlled from either a ground control station or from the platform it is escorting. Boeing director of Phantom Works International Shane Arnott said that no modifications to the manned platform would be required to control the wingmen escorts.

Arnott also said that there was interest from other Five Eyes partners, but he declined to reveal whether any additional funding had been provided by them.

According to Boeing data, the aircraft is 38 feet long and will have a range of 2,000 nautical miles. It will be capable of ‘fighter-like’ performance and fitted with on-board sensors to enable it to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and electronic warfare roles.

The first prototype is under construction by Boeing Defence in Brisbane, Queensland, but Arnott would not confirm whether production aircraft will be built in Australia or the United States.

“It depends on the market,” he said.

Australia has yet to make a choice between the MQ-9 Reaper Block 5 variant currently in production for the U.S. Air Force, or the MQ-9B Skyguardian (formerly known as the Certifiable Predator B) under development for the United Kingdom.

Pyne said that 12-16 air vehicles will be acquired under the ADF’s Project Air 7003 Phase 1 (Armed MALE UAS) which, in the 2016 Australian Defence White Paper, was priced at between one and two billion Australian dollars (U.S. $730 million to $1.45 billion).

The Australian government will now request pricing and availability data from the United States on Reaper variants to support future decision making on the acquisition. He said he was looking at the 2020-2021 period for initial deliveries and an entry into service in the 2022-2023 timeframe.

The single source acquisition methodology comes as a blow to Israel Aircraft Industries, who had hoped their Heron TP MALE UAS would be considered in an open competition for the Air 7003 contract.

“An assessment was made between the various capabilities and the Reaper was the one we decided was best-suited to our needs,” Pyne said. “And rather than going through a full tender process when we already know that this is the one that we want, we are adopting the single-source supply that is allowed under the [Australian Defence Organisation] First Principles Review.”

The aircraft will be operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) but Minister Pyne said no decision had been made about where they will be based. The ground control segment will be at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia, where the announcement was made this morning.

“The government will take advice of course from the ADF about the best placing for the Reaper. Edinburgh is the most likely place because it’s where we have significant investments already in this kind of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and it has become the centre of our ISR capabilities in many respects,” he said.

GA-ASI launched ‘Team Reaper Australia,’ a consortium of Australian industry partners, at the 2017 Australian International Airshow at Avalon, south of Melbourne in March 2017 and announced its intention to bid for Air 7003 at the show.

The industry grouping has since expanded to include Airspeed, Cobham, CAE Australia, Flight Data Systems, Quickstep Holdings, Raytheon Australia, Rockwell Collins, Sentient Vision, TAE Aerospace and Ultra Electronics Australia.

The initial investment in the Triton capability is AU$1.4 billion (U.S. $1.03 billion), which includes AU$200 million to enter into a cooperative development program with the U.S. Navy; and AU$364 million for major infrastructure works at two Royal Australian Air Force bases.

The total cost of the deal, including whole of life sustainment costs, is estimated to be AU$6.9 billion Australian dollars (U.S. $5.1 billion).

The first aircraft will be delivered in 2023 and the last in 2025. They will be based at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia and at Tindal in the Northern Territory, but are also likely to be forward-deployed to other airfields around the continent, including a string of bare bases to the north and north-west.

The announcement marks the Gate 2 milestone in the Australian Defence’s Force’s Air 7000 Phase 1B program, which seeks to acquire a high altitude, long endurance maritime surveillance platform to complement its eventual fleet of 12 Boeing P-8A Poseidon manned maritime patrol aircraft.

Australia’s Triton program earlier achieved Gate 1 approval in 2014, and the 2016 Defence White Paper affirmed the government’s commitment to the acquisition of the capability, subject to the successful completion of the U.S. Navy’s Triton development program. At that time the requirement was for seven Tritons , one less than the six announced yesterday, and was initially capped at AU$4 billion, although this did not include through-life sustainment costs.

“The Triton will complement the surveillance role of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft through sustained operations at long ranges as well as being able to undertake a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks,” according to a joint statement by Prime Minister Turnbull, Minister for Defence Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne. “Together these aircraft will significantly enhance our anti-submarine warfare and maritime strike capability, as well as our search and rescue capability.”

Minister Pyne said that the Triton will be responsible for surveillance of Australia’s areas of maritime responsibility, which represents over 10 percent of the world’s surface. “They will provide surveillance and reconnaissance across the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean as far as Antarctica,” he said.

“Triton provides unprecedented endurance and 360-degree coverage through its unique sensor suite,” commented Doug Shaffer, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of Triton programs. “Australia has one of the largest sea zones in the world over which it has rights to use marine resources, also known as an Economic Exclusion Zone. As a flexible platform, Triton can serve in missions as varied as maritime domain awareness, target acquisition, fisheries protection, oil field monitoring and humanitarian relief.”

The Australian Defence Force estimates Triton is capable of establishing a ten-hour orbit in the Southern Ocean, south of Heard Island, or similar efforts to the north of Guam and to the East of Fiji in the Pacific Ocean, from bases around the country.

Australia is interested in the multi-intelligence (MULTI-INT), also known as integration functional capability 4 version of the Triton. This features several enhancements over the baseline aircraft and includes a signals intelligence payload which, in U.S. Navy service, is intended to replace the Lockheed EP-3E Aries surveillance platform.

The cooperative development program Australia has signed with the U.S. Navy is similar to the agreement it has with the Navy regarding P-8A spiral development and will seek to influence the further development of the MULTI-INT Triton to meet Australia’s specific needs. Items of interest are understood to include the integration of a weather radar system, for prolonged operations in tropical conditions where daily thunderstorms are a fact of life, and a ground moving target indicator to facilitate overland ISR missions in addition to the blue water maritime surveillance role.

“This cooperative program will strengthen our ability to develop advanced capability and conduct joint military operations,” Prime Minister Turnbull said.

Approximately 100 Australian Defence Force personnel and more than 80 scientists and researchers from Australia, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom took part in CUE17, which began Nov. 20, in the South Australian city of Adelaide.

CUE17 is part of the Contested Urban Environment Strategic Challenge, run under the Five Eyes’ Technical Cooperation Program, and it is the first field exercise run under the program, which has previously been conducted as a desktop simulation exercise. Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance between all five of the countries participating in CUE17.

[Coming soon: joint international cyberspace operations]

The exercise was held with the full support of the South Australian state government and utilized the recently vacated Adelaide Dental Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital buildings, creating a realistic challenge during several different scenarios.

Australian lead for the event, Justin Fidock from the Defence Science and Technology Group, or DST Group, said the aim was to determine benefits that can be derived from the integration of wide-area aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, ground-based sensors, and target sharing for war fighters operating in difficult and complex urban environment.

“Basically we are integrating ground- and air-based sensors and using multiple methods to draw insights into technology, with a strong emphasis on qualitative data,” he said.

Various new and emerging technologies from Australia, the U.S. and Canada were selected for CUE17, including DST Group’s Defence Experimentation Airborne Platform; a Beechcraft 1900 aircraft configured for Wide Area Surveillance Activity Based Intelligence, or WASABI, with an Angel Fire 2 96-megapixel camera; a Selex Galileo PicoSAR synthetic aperture radar; and a Wescam MX-20HD full-motion, high-definition video sensor.

Other DST technologies included Evolutionary Layered ISR Integration EXemplar Architecture ISR enterprise software; social media analysis systems; and the ability to track targets using existing public infrastructure, such as CCTV cameras.

“The challenge is to understand which sensors from which nation fit into the ISR ‘picture’ and how we push that down to the user,” Fidock said.

U.S. technologies fielded for the event included the DragonFly 360-degree, full-motion video camera system mounted on the corner of one of the high-rise buildings to simulate a tethered UAV, which would typically be used in a real scenario.

Also being trialed was a 3-D common operating picture sensor.

“That allows us to do mission planning in a 3-D environment, so you know where to put the sensors to identify where dead spots are,” explained U.S. lead Susan Toth, from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

“Then when live events are going on, as sensors are going off, it alerts onto the common operating picture and that allows rapid recueing. For example, we demonstrated a scenario where a Canadian ground sensor detected an activity and we were able to auto-cue the Australian WASABI aircraft’s sensors and send the information to the user via tactical data link.”

The next field activity under the Technical Cooperation Program, CUE18, will be hosted in Canada, and the 2019 event will take place in the United States.