Australia’s future Air Warfare Destroyers are derived from the Spanish Navy’s F101 frigate design, whose lead ship, Alvaro de Bazan, is seen here. (US Navy photo)

Construction of Air Warfare Destroyers Underway

(Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued April 15, 2010)

Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, announced today that full production of Australia’s three Hobart-Class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD) is now underway.

In a ceremony at the BAE Systems shipyard in Melbourne, Mr Combet announced that full production of hull blocks has now commenced at three shipyards: ASC in Adelaide, BAE Systems in Melbourne and Forgacs in Newcastle.

“More than 500 people are now working on building hull blocks for the AWDs, and this will grow to a total workforce in the three shipyards of over 1,000 people,” said Mr Combet.

“Overall, more than 3,000 people will be working to build these warships around Australia and importantly, about 200 apprentices will join the project in the next few years.

“Each ship will be made up of 31 blocks fabricated at the three shipyards. The construction of each ship will require 51 kilometres of piping, 427 kilometres of electrical cable, 4,700 tonnes of steel, 138,000 litres of paint, 4,700 mechanical valves and 1.5 million fasteners.

“By mid-2011, completed hull blocks will begin to arrive in Adelaide for consolidation into the complete warship at the Government of South Australia’s Common User Facility.

“Successful completion of pilot fabrication work and production readiness reviews has finalised the transition of the project from detailed design into full production of the ships.

“This is an important milestone for this national project, and I wish to congratulate everyone involved in helping us reach this point,” Mr Combet said.

The project is on track to deliver the first AWD, HMAS Hobart, in December 2014. HMAS Brisbane is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2016 and HMAS Sydney in mid 2017. (ends)

AWD Construction Commences in Victoria, NSW and South Australia

(Source: ASC; issued April 15, 2010)

Construction of Australia’s air warfare destroyer (AWD) capability is underway, with three Australian shipyards simultaneously building destroyer blocks.

Adelaide-based ASC, shipbuilder for the AWD Project, has congratulated its block subcontractors – BAE Systems (Williamstown, Victoria) and FORGACS (Newcastle, New South Wales) – for commencing their build programs on time.

ASC Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Steve Ludlam said the simultaneous construction of AWD blocks in multiple Australian shipyards reflected a truly national commitment to building the three AWDs.

“A critical part of ASC’s AWD bid in 2005 was to share block construction with other companies across Australia that have the capability to build blocks for three AWDs,” Mr Ludlam said.

“This vision is now a reality with shipyards in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales simultaneously building blocks for the largest defence project in the nation’s history.”

ASC has subcontracted the construction of 65 blocks to BAE Systems and FORGACS over the life of the AWD Project. ASC will build 28 blocks, and integrate and consolidate all 93 blocks into three next generation warships.

ASC will undertake its own fabrication and construction of ship blocks in its dedicated AWD shipyard, which was officially opened in January 2010.

The $120 million shipyard will also be home to the assembly of the AWDs (including handling and transport), outfitting work, set-to-work of equipment and systems, and trial activities.

AWD BLOCKS

The AWDs will be constructed using the block build method.

Thirty per cent of the blocks will be constructed by ASC at its Osborne, South Australia shipyard with the other 70 per cent to be built by BAE Systems in Williamstown, Victoria and FORGACS in Newcastle, New South Wales.

The blocks constructed off site will be transported by sea to Adelaide for block erection and integration by ASC.

Blocks will average 15 metres by 12 metres by 9 metres, and weigh around 200 tonnes each.

ASC (formerly known as Australian Submarine Corporation) is the nation’s last remaining Australian-owned prime defence contractor. The company constructed the Collins Class submarines and today delivers design, upgrade and maintenance services for the submarines through-life. ASC is also the shipbuilder of Australia’s next generation warships – the Hobart Class air warfare destroyers. ASC employs over 1,600 personnel in South Australia and Western Australia, including 280 engineering and technical specialists.

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http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/114020/australia-kicks-off-construction-of-air-warfare-destroyers.html#

Russia’s Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered cruiser plies English Channel

The Russian nuclear-powered cruiser Pyotr Veliky, deployed to participate in the largest Russian Navy drills in the Indian Ocean, has crossed the English Channel for the first time in her history.

“The ship has indeed passed through the channel for the first time,” the commander of the cruiser, Capt. 2nd Rank Felix Menkov, told a RIA Novosti correspondent on board the vessel.

“The English Channel is shallow…and has a great deal of potential risks, including heavy marine traffic both to the south and the north,” Menkov said.

Six days after leaving Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters of Severomorsk, Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) traveled around 4,000 kilometers (2,160 nautical miles) and entered the Atlantic Ocean.

During her six-month tour of duty, the warship is to pass through the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea before entering the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.

The Pyotr Veliky will conduct maneuvers in the Indian Ocean with other ships from the Black Sea Fleet and will make port calls in the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, the Russian Navy said.

Russia’s largest and most powerful surface combatant warship, Pyotr Veliky has a displacement of between 24,000 and 26,000 tons, and a speed of up to 31 knots (almost 57 km/h). The ship is 251 meters in length and has a crew of more than 700 sailors.

PYOTR VELIKY (Atlantic Ocean), April 5 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100405/158438299.html

Varyag before and after its drydock stay.

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2010/03/degaussing-varyag.html

Am I wrong or is it the top pic the After (See Mast and open squares for radars) and the bottom the Before?

The last F-100 Spanish frigate, F-105 “Cristobal Colon” will be lauched on the 1st Week of november 2010

Details (In spanish)
http://www.infodefensa.com/esp/noticias/noticias.asp?cod=2325&n=Navantia%20botar%E1%20la%20F-105%20Crist%F3bal%20Col%F3n%20la%20primera%20semana%20de%20noviembre%20de%202010

Brahmos Missile Proves Its Mettle Once Again

(Source: Indian Press Information Bureau; dated March 21, web-posted March 22, 2010)

India today successfully test fired BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile from a vertical launcher fitted in a moving warship INS Ranvir off Orissa coast. The missile performed supersonic manoeuvring following the exact flight path and homed on to the decommissioned target ship INS Meen.

“The launch met all mission requirements and was 100 per cent successful,” Dr. A S Pillai, CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, confirmed.

The missile, which has a range of 290-km and flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach, can take on a target lying anywhere in the 360-degree range of the ship. Senior Naval officials who witnessed the launch termed it a “landmark event.”

DRDO along with Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia has jointly designed and developed the BrahMos missiles which are capable of carrying conventional warheads up to 200 -300 kg and a range of 290-km.

The state-of-the-art Universal Vertical Launcher from which the missile was test fired has been designed, developed and patented by BrahMos Aerospace. The launcher is designed to be fitted under the warship’s deck, thereby protecting it from atmospheric conditions and imparting stealth to the weapon system.

Three 15 A Alpha-class ships being built at Mazagon Docks in Mumbai and three more Talwar class ships (known as 1135.6 class in Russia) built at Kaliningrad in Russia will be fitted with similar Vertical Launcher modules.

With the latest launch, BrahMos has once again proved its mettle to be launched from both Vertical and Inclined configurations from Naval platforms. The Army has plans to induct three regiments of BrahMos in near future to use the missile as a “precision first strike weapon.”

President Smt. Pratibha Patil and Defence Minister Shri AK Antony congratulated the missile scientists and naval officers for the successful launch of the supersonic cruise missile.

-ends-

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/113339/india-fires-brahmos-missile-from-warship.html

ladies and gentlemen, the VAryag has left the drydock 😮

http://www.defence.pk/forums/china-defence/51169-varyag-out-dry-dock.html

on the pakistani forum there’s a link for a pic, but it does not give acess

someone got that pic?

Joint Strike Fighter: Additional Costs and Delays Risk Not Meeting Warfighter Requirements on Time

(Source: Government Accountability Office; issued March 19, 2010)

The F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is the Department of Defense’s (DOD) most costly and ambitious aircraft acquisition, seeking to simultaneously develop and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. The JSF is critical for recapitalizing tactical air forces and will require a long-term commitment to very large annual funding outlays.

The current estimated investment is $323 billion to develop and procure 2,457 aircraft. (GAO’s previous annual report on JSF, released in March 2009, estimated development and procurement cost at $300 billion for 2,456 DoD aircraft. GAO’s latest estimate means the program’s cost increased by almost 8% in one year—Ed.)

As required by law, this report discusses (1) program cost, schedule, and performance; (2) manufacturing results; and (3) test plans and progress. GAO’s work includes interviews, cost data, test plans, production measures, and analyses by defense and contractor officials.

The JSF program continues to struggle with increased costs and slowed progress–negative outcomes that were foreseeable as events have unfolded over several years. Total estimated acquisition costs have increased $46 billion and development extended 2 more years, compared to the program baseline approved in 2007.

DOD leadership is now taking some positive steps which, if effectively implemented, should improve outcomes and provide more realistic cost and schedule estimates. Officials increased time and funding for system development, added 4 aircraft to the flight test program, and reduced near-term procurement quantities.

Restructuring is not finished and further cost growth and schedule extensions are likely.

The program is at risk for not delivering aircraft quantities and capabilities on time.

Dates for achieving initial operational capabilities may have to be extended or some requirements deferred to future upgrades.

Aircraft unit costs will likely exceed the thresholds established by the statutory provision commonly referred to as Nunn-McCurdy and may require DOD to certify the need for the JSF to Congress.

Program setbacks in costs, deliveries, and performance directly affect modernization plans and retirement schedules of the legacy aircraft the JSF is slated to replace.

Manufacturing JSF test aircraft continues to take more time, money, and effort than budgeted. By December 2009, only 4 of 13 test aircraft had been delivered and labor hours to build the aircraft had increased more than 50 percent above earlier estimates. Late deliveries hamper the development flight test program and affect work on production aircraft, even as plans proceed to significantly ramp-up annual procurement rates.

Some improvement is noted, but continuing manufacturing inefficiencies, parts problems, and engineering technical changes indicate that design and production processes may lack the maturity needed to efficiently produce aircraft at planned rates. The independent manufacturing review team determined that the planned production ramp rate was unachievable absent significant improvements.

Although restructuring actions should help, there is still substantial overlap of development, test, and production activities while DOD continues to invest in large quantities of production aircraft before variant designs are proven and performance verified.

Slowed by late aircraft deliveries, technical problems, and low productivity, the flight test program only completed 10 percent of the sorties planned during 2009.

Other technical challenges include (1) relying on an extensive but largely unproven and unaccredited network of ground test laboratories and simulation models to evaluate system performance; (2) developing and integrating very large and complex software requirements; and (3) maturing several critical technologies essential to meet operational performance and logistical support requirements.

Collectively, testing and technical challenges will likely add more costs and time to development, affecting delivery of warfighter requirements and hampering start up of pilot and maintainer training and initial operational testing.

Selected Excerpts

— Steadily lengthening schedules to complete key system developefforts further exacerbates the already extreme overlap among development, test, and production activities.

— The program office currently estimates total life-cycle costs for operating, sustaining, and maintaining JSF fleets at $764 billion, substantially higher than earlier estimates. The cost per flying hour of the CTOL variant is projected to be higher than the F-16, one of the Air Force aircraft it is slated to replace. NAVAIR officials recently projected total life-cycle costs even higher, at more than $1 trillion.

— In addition to ongoing software challenges, the program continues to address several technical issues:

* The carrier variant requires significant design modifications to the keel web, a key structural joint to enable catapult takeoffs. Proposed design changes are still being reviewed and cost and schedule impacts are unknown at this time.

* The program continues to address significant technical and design challenges with the F135 engine. The STOVL engine’s lift fan has required design changes in response to damages incurred during testing which will limit flight test efficiency and will likely require additional modifications, time, and resources.

* Logistic support: NAVAIR reported that the software to support the system’s communication with legacy information systems is currently not planned and may affect interoperability. In addition, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) reported that the current integrated support system for the JSF prohibits operating two detachments from one squadron simultaneously. This limitation will severely affect current operating practices.

* Helmet Mounted Display. Critical to information integration and situational awareness, issues with the helmet mounted display continue to impact system effectiveness and air system integration.

* Damage to flight deck and runways. The F-35 engine and integrated power package exhaust may cause excessive damage to the flight deck environment and runway surfaces that may result in operating limits or drive costly upgrades and repairs of JSF basing options.

* Thermal management. Heat build-up and exhaust impedes the aircraft’s ability to conduct missions in hot environments. The program has made design changes to address this issue, but those changes are not expected to go into effect until the third low-rate procurement lot and are likely to affect operational testing. The development of a fuel pump to mitigate excessive heat is not expected to fully achieve requirements. As a result, the program has instituted restrictions on how the aircraft can be used [which] will limit flight test efficiency and may not be feasible for operational deployment.

Click here for the full report (53 pages in PDF format) on the GAO website.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10382.pdf
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http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/113319/jsf-cost-overruns%2C-technical-problems-worse-than-thought%3A-gao.html

Greece to resell German submarine: minister

by Staff Writers
Athens (AFP) March 17, 2010

Greece hopes to earn some 350 million euros (480 million dollars) by reselling a German-built submarine whose delivery was dogged by technical concerns, the Greek defence minister said on Wednesday.
“The Germans are pricing the Papanikolis submarine at 300 million, let us calculate 350 million without being over-optimistic,” Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos told a news conference.

Athens in 2006 had refused to accept delivery of the submarine built by German contractors ThyssenKrupp after Greek Navy inspectors declared it defective during test runs off the port of Kiel.

But Venizelos on Wednesday insisted that “improvements” had been carried out at ThyssenKrupp’s HDW shipyards and that the Greek Navy was now prepared to declare the vessel seaworthy.

“This is what (the Navy) have told us, this is what they will tell Greek parliament as well,” he said

He added: “This discussion about a listing submarine which we are trying to sell… is harmful to the public interest.”

Greece in 2000 had ordered four new 214-class submarines and an overhaul for three of its older 209-class submarines from HDW. Most of the order was to have been carried out at Hellenic Shipyards near Athens, which were acquired by HDW in 2002, three years before it merged with ThyssenKrupp.

Athens has already paid out 2.03 billion euros on the project out of a total estimated cost of 2.84 billion in current prices with nothing to show for it, the minister said.

Venizelos on Wednesday said plans to overhaul two of the older submarines would now be scrapped and that two new submarines would be ordered instead at a cost of 500 million euros apiece.

The Greek government, struggling with a debt crisis and facing a huge effort to restructure the economy, hopes that the submarine deal will smooth the way for ThyssenKrupp to shed 75 percent of its stake in the struggling Greek shipyards to the Abu Dhabi Mar group.

It has said the sale offers a chance to save the jobs of 1,300 workers.

Venizelos also said another “major” project to purchase French frigates would also be carried out.

“A difficult and long negotiation at state and commercial level is ongoing (on the issue),” he said.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Greece_to_resell_German_submarine_minister_999.html