UV Online
New JP129 tactical UAS requirements locked
Peter La Franchi / Canberra
The Australian Department of Defence’s capability group has confirmed that it has locked down revised requirements for the Australian Defence Force’s Joint Project 129 tactical unmanned air system (UAS) with new tender documents now in preparation.
Capability executive head VADM Matt Tripovich says “we have agreed the requirements now and are working closely with the Defence Materiel Organisation to be able to get a request to tender out to the industry again, to start the process. I might say that we are working at an accelerated process so that we can get quickly back into contract with the appropriate solution and get... into service.”
Tripovich also confirms fresh Australian government approvals for the project will be limited to source selection only – or what the Australian acquisition system refers to as “second pass - rather than a revalidation of the full requirement.
“We will have to come back to government with a new solution and a new cost to get them to give us a new second pass approval, if you like, then go on to contract for a new UAS”.
The capability requirements review followed the cancellation last year of Australia’s contract with Boeing Australia for the supply of Israel Aerospace Industries I-View 250 systems.
Tripovich says “it came back to me to have a close look over our requirements to make sure that the requirements are still valid and if there are any requirements that we needed to change, as a result perhaps of our experience through that contract or contemporary experiences in the field, where we would want to adjust our requirements.
“Certainly we are taking a very pragmatic approach to our requirements now, having learned a lot through that first contract.”
The I-View 250 system was unlikely to ever meet Australian requirements according to the general manager of the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation Warren King. He says that reviews of the project ahead of the contract cancellation found that even if short term solutions were adopted, the problems identified would have continued: “When we looked deeply they would not have been overcome. So, instead of inheriting a program that may be around three, four or five years and then find we had troubles and leave the Australian Defence Force short of capability, our new processes actually found that there were difficulties.”
King says the DMO “took proactive action with capability development, the Chief of Army, terminated the contract early and are now moving outside. I think we would like to use that to highlight the fact that we are learning lessons and we are addressing programs’ difficulties early.”
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