Australia’s Future Submarine project was the centrepiece of the 2009 Defence White Paper and early preliminary work on this new capability is well underway within Defence. For its part, Raytheon Australia is also gearing up to meet the challenge. John Allcock, the company’s Group General Manager, Integrated Solutions, spoke to Momentum.

Momentum: The Government’s activity around the Future Submarine is gaining pace. Is there a potential role for Raytheon Australia as a trusted partner on this project?

John Allcock: The Government’s decision to engage the RAND Corporation to complete a domestic design study for the Future Submarine Project, SEA 1000, has properly focused discussion on the need to consider the workforce skills that are necessary and available in Australia to contribute to what will be the most complex and challenging defence acquisition in Australia’s history.

In bringing an unsurpassed Australian pedigree in combat system integration to the SEA 1000 project there is no Australian company
better placed to be a trusted partner in this endeavour to ensure that the Future Submarine project is a success.

It is this role that is of such great importance at a time when there is considerable discussion about the need for strong execution of our defence acquisitions.

Momentum: What is it precisely that Raytheon Australia brings to this project?

John Allcock: The Raytheon story in Australia tells of a capable and experienced engineering resource matched by proven program management expertise, quality proceses, important US linkages and an enviable record of success in Australian naval systems integration.

In this regard, Raytheon Australia has revealed itself as a trusted partner of the Commonwealth and a very safe pair of hands.

Momentum: Take us back to Raytheon’s initial involvement with the Collins submarine and how the parent company came to make its investment in Australia.

John Allcock:  Raytheon has been involved in the Collins Combat System since 1999, when we were asked to provide support to the original legacy combat system program. At that time we were working with the incumbent to help stabilise the system and reach an initial operational capability.

Raytheon saw that we could add value longer term to our customer, not only with our combat system experience, but more importantly, with our systems engineering and integration skills. This was when our US parent made the commitment to invest in Australia for the future, with the vision to become the premier Mission Systems Integrator and Mission Support agent for the Australian Defence Force.

Over the next couple of years Raytheon Australia acquired the assets and skills of a couple of companies and transferred proven processes from our parent. It was this course of action that created the critical mass and skills necessary to achieve a level of performance that has become the envy of the industry.

The quality of our DMO Scorecard results demonstrates the high priority that has been placed on forging and maintaining strong customer relationships. It also reflects the application of proven processes where, for example, we are the only Australian defence contractor that has company wide third party CMMI Level 3 process accreditation across all DMO focus areas.

The outcomes that followed for Raytheon Australia in naval systems integration are considerable and offer the Commonwealth a considerable potential asset for its SEA 1000 project.

Momentum: What have been the various tasks that Raytheon Australia has undertaken with Collins?

John Allcock: Initially our COLLINS work was to help the incumbent solve some of the significant performance issues experienced on the legacy Combat System. From there we assumed responsibility for successfully completing the contract which included finalising the shore facility and completing the remaining platform deliveries.

Simultaneously, the Commonwealth made a decision to acquire some additional capability from the USN for the Combat System and Raytheon Australia became engaged in the Combat System Augmentation (CSA) program, whereby specific USN capabilities were introduced into the COLLINS class on a couple of the submarines.

This was a collaboration between an Australian team, comprising the DMO, Raytheon Australia and a number of other companies as well as the USN. This program was very successful and the COLLINS platforms that were upgraded with the CSA capability performed extremely well in joint exercises and quickly gained the reputation as the most capable conventional submarine in the world.

Moving from the CSA program, Raytheon Australia was selected for the Collins Replacement Combat System (RCS), with the key tasks of designing and delivering the Combat Systems hardware necessary to accommodate the USN AN/BYG-1 Tactical /Weapon Control system. The role also included the architecture, systems engineering hardware and software necessary for the design, development, test and delivery of the interface between the AN/BYG-1 system and a range of legacy and new sensors on COLLINS, including sonar, GPS, Plot table, Electronic Warfare and Electronic Chart Display and Information System.

This development was initially seen as one involving considerable technical risk for the program but by using our technical expertise, working with the various stakeholders and using the company’s defined processes we were able to successfully deliver on all our commitments.

The RCS program has progressed through two ongoing upgrades and we have provided the same level of support to our customer through all of these technical inserts. The culmination of Raytheon’s extensive efforts on the RCS program were seen in exercises off Hawaii in 2008 when HMAS Waller, fitted with RCS version TI02, was the first submarine to undertake a live firing of a CBASS heavyweight torpedo.

It is important to note that the skills that Raytheon developed and refined through its various COLLINS activities have not been lost but have been retained as a valuable asset for the company and its potential customers. They are being used today, for example, supporting the COLLINS fleet as well as on the ongoing Replacement Combat System Technical Insert program.

Momentum: On the back of its Collins pedigree Raytheon Australia now has a major role on the Air Warfare Destroyer. How is that program relevant to the Future Submarine project?

John Allcock: Our considerable skills are being applied on the HOBART Class Air Warfare Destroyer program where Raytheon Australia is engaged as a member of the AWD Alliance as Combat System Systems Engineer (CSSE). In the role we have been intimately involved with the customer in the analysis and refinement of requirements, as well as developing the overall architecture and progressing through the essential systems engineering tasks.

Our involvement in AWD has continued through the various phases of the program as the Alliance works to deliver this significant national capability. With the AWD program completing its critical design review, Raytheon Australia’s considerable front end engineering resources will progressively become available to potentially support SEA 1000.

The strong investments that have been made by Raytheon combine with the skills and processes that have been developed and enhanced over the past decade to create an important capability that is ready to support our naval customer in the designing and delivering of the Future Submarine.

Momentum: Could you tell us a little about what the company is doing to enhance the skills of its engineers and program managers and how this is relevant for SEA 1000?

John Allcock: It is worthy of note that over the past three years the company has invested, through extensive training courses in the US, in developing Raytheon Australia’s top systems engineers to become trained and certified in the Raytheon Enterprise Architecture Program. So far ten participants have undertaken extensive training from US based experts in a wide variety of architectural methods.

A measure of the success of this program has been the architecture developed in the early stages of the Air Warfare Destroyer program which has been stable for the past 36 months. This architecture has provided both the stable foundation on which to base the detailed design for the system and sufficient flexibility to cater for changes in technology that will inevitably occur throughout the platform’s lifecycle.

This experience is further evidence that Raytheon now possesses a unique capability within the Australian market to produce architectures for complex defence procurements that meet the needs for flexibility, stability and performance. This is a skill that will be critical for upcoming programs such as SEA 1000.

Not only have we grown our engineering talent but we have also invested heavily in taking our program management team to the next level, something to which our CMMI accreditation attests.

These strong investments in developing a unique and indigenous industry resource means that Raytheon Australia is ideally situated to apply these assets to the benefit of SEA 1000 during the early phases of the program.

Momentum: Summing up then, how do you see Raytheon Australia contributing to the Future Submarine project?

John Allcock: Our depth of expertise in working with our customer on programs such as RCS and the HOBART Class Air Warfare Destroyer provide a valuable opportunity to bring our proven engineering and program management skill and processes to help de-risk the program and achieve successful project outcomes.

By enlisting Raytheon Australia as a trusted partner in this endeavour it will mean that the assets developed under the COLLINS submarine program, improved with CSA and RCS, and refined on AWD, will now be returning to where they were first conceived - the front end design of Australia’s submarines.