Defence Update

Senior representatives of these companies (whose names are listed later in this article) were briefed by Australian Government and South Australian Government officials in Adelaide and Woomera on July 25-26. It seems likely that consortiums could be formed from those individual companies now interested in going a further step by tendering.

The Premier of South Australia, Mr John Bannon and the Federal Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Mr David Simmons, outlined the basic concepts for a new Woomera during a visit there on June 2. The Woomera Rocket Range, now basically known as the Woomera Instrumented Range, lies 500km northwest of Adelaide. It was established in the late 1940s following arrangements between Australia and Britain in 1947 to conduct what was initially known as the Long Range Weapons Project. This UK/Australia Joint Project remained in place until 1980, although most of its guided weapons testing activities wound down in the 1960s.

Woomera township, once a restricted area along with the vast range area, grew to cater for 7,000 people. Today its population is about 1,900 and many of the Defence scientists and engineers engaged on limited upper atmosphere and space activities come in from the Weapons Research Establishment in the Defence Research Centre run by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Salisbury on the outskirts of Adelaide.

DSTO is the manager of the 13m hectare 500km by 200km Woomera Range’s Prohibited Area which was extended for launchings 4,800km north to the Gulf of Carpentaria and northwest to northern Western Australia. The area is bigger than the whole of England. The Range Head is located 35km north-west of Woomera village which is on the banks of Lake Koolymilka. The treeless, gibber plain desert normally receives only sparse rainfall, averaging about 190mm a year. With Australia’s centre receiving major rains through autumn, the region was waterlogged at the time of the visit by Messrs Bannon and Simmons.

The Premier and Federal Minister said it was anticipated that the companies interested in taking over the range facilities would invest up to $250m in the project. The majority of respondents who registered interest proposed to use Woomera for airborne testing, trials and training for military and civil aircraft.

Bannon said one major industry group headed by a leading Australian aerospace company had already proposed a well developed plan concerning the range’s future. Such commercial operation of Woomera included the establishment of an air combat manoeuvring range and an electronic warfare range.

Bannon added that if successful, the group proposed to spend in excess of $1. 5m to conduct a feasibility study, including market research. Officials envisage that if Defence orientated instrumented ranges are set up, prospective customers, apart from the Australian Defence Force and especially the RAAF, could come from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand and the US Navy.

Bannon and Simmons said that in a fully developed state both for military and civil testing, the range would have the potential to generate an income of tens of millions of dollars a year. They said the registrations of interest had revealed a wide cross-section of industry. Some responses had come from companies already operating ranges overseas. The initiative to commercialise Woomera is being carried by the SA Department of State Development and Technology and the Commonwealth Department of Defence. Invitations to register interest in the redevelopment of Woomera opened on March 10 and closed on May 12. It is forecast that following a series of studies and the development of a final proposal, a licence to develop the range would be in place about the end of this year.

The companies who registered interest are: Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA), Ansett Technologies, Applied Technology Systems, which is part of Telecom Australia, Australian Flight Test Services, Australian Launch Vehicles Pty Ltd, AWA Defence Industries, BHP Aerospace and Electronics, British Aerospace (Military Division), Brown & Dureau (Aviation Division), Computer Sciences of Australia (CSA), lntercorp Pty Ltd, Price Waterhouse Urwick and Thomson-CSF (Branch Equipment Aeronautique).

Woomera Rocket Range was the largest weapons testing base outside of the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s. The prime purpose of the UK/Australia Joint Project was to test guided weapons. Better known projects were Rapier, Bloodhound, Malkara, lkara, Sea Dart and Sea Slug. The highly successful pilotless aircraft, Jindivik, still in operation, was also developed as a target aircraft for guided weapons. The name Woomera is an aboriginal word meaning a short stick or spear launcher (for a hunting spear).

Evett’s Field, a large military airfield whose airstrip was upgraded recently at a cost of $4. 5m, was not only a supply base but also the home for the Target Aircraft Squadron which operated the radio-controlled Jindivik jet aircraft in support of ongoing surface-to-air and air-to-air missile tests. Aircraft flown from Evett’s Field also included the drone configured Gloster Meteor and the English Electric Canberra. Now surplus RAAF Mirage fighters are stored nearby pending disposal.

Some of the highlights of past Woomera activities have been:

• Trialling of the Australian developed Malkara heavy anti-tank weapon which was the most accurate of its type in the world at the time and was ordered by the UK.

• Successful testing of the Blue Steel air-to-ground missile for the UK V Force bombers and its Blue Danube warhead.

• Twenty two firings of the Black Knight upper atmosphere and re-entry test vehicle for the Blue Streak missile and its shield (Project Dazzle) to protect against burnup on re-entry. The heat shield on astronaut John Glenn’s space capsule was derived from Project Dazzle research.

• European Launcher Development Organisation research missile firings. The ELDO organisation aimed to put a satellite in orbit by 1966. The first stage rocket was Blue Streak. The second stage was French, the third stage German and the satellite stage was designated to the Italians.

• Launching of Australia’s first satellite, WRESAT, in 1967, as a joint project between scientists of the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) and University of Adelaide; The project was completed in 11 months. WRESAT was successfully launched into a polar orbit.

More than 800 sounding rockets have been launched from Woomera since the early 1950s, many of them Defence projects. Sounding rockets are designed to lift payloads above the earth’s atmosphere, where instruments can make observations (eg X-ray, UV and ozone levels) more effectively. The programmes of upper atmosphere rocket research ceased in the 1970s. In 1987, although the range was basically on a care and maintenance status, the Australian Government agreed to make Woomera available to teams from the German Space Organisation (DFVLR} and the American Space Agency (NASA). Seven sounding rockets equipped with astronautical instruments were fired to study Supernova 87A, the recently discovered expioding star in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Twenty years ago the Australian and US Governments established the Joint Defence Space Communications Station at Nurrungar near Woomera. Its US and Australian personnel live in Woomera village.

The large-scale copper; gold and uranium mining development at Roxby Downs is about 90km to the north of the township. The estimated net cost of running the Defence Support Centre Woomera (DSCW) is $12. 1m (for 1989-90). This is shared by the Australian Department of Defence (58%) and the United States Air Force (42%).

Following consultations between SA Premier John Bannon and the Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, a joint Commonwealth/ State study indicated that normalisation of Woomera was feasible. But the governments agreed that full normalisation of Woomera would not proceed. However a council was set up, with the Commonwealth retaining control. Some commercial operations have been transferred. Substandard Defence housing is also gradually being replaced.

About 75% of the range is occupied by some 20 pastoralists who hold Crown leases granted by the South Australian Government. The present boundaries of the Woomera Prohibited Area encompass some 130,000sq kms.

The RAAF is the main Range user for weapon and aircraft trials. It also is used for ordnance trials and exercises. Under the envisaged new era, Premier Bannon and Minister Simmons see Woomera becoming a giant outdoor laboratory. Meanwhile, past and present senior officers of the Royal Australian Air Force have been keenly supportive of acquiring a centre at Woomera which they see as greatly improving the operational readiness and capability of its pilots.

Given that there is little prospect of achieving this ‘wish’ within their own or the Australian Defence Force’s authority because of financial and other constraints, the RAAF is believed to be highly supportive of •Commonwealth/South Australian planning to commercialise the Woomera Range. Just how the RAAF would be given time, or be able to lease or rent time from a private owner remains to be settled in the fine detail, if and when a private venture company or group is successful.

Nevertheless the RAAF had a Working Party looking at proposals for Woomera two years ago. This group has mainly considered the prospect of an Operational Test and Evaluation Centre (OTEC). It remains to be seen if the groups in final contention to take over the Woomera Range include such a centre, but already, as mentioned earlier, some companies have something similar in mind.

If an OTEC is proposed, it most likely could include:

• an Air Combat Manoeuvring Range;

• an Electronic Warfare Range; and possibly

• an Instrumented Tactical Bombing Range.

Senior RAAF officers hold that the establishment of such a centre is essential in providing real time combat training for aircrews now that aircraft contain such high technology. For some time now they have seen Woomera as a national asset which can provide a large amount of airspace without the limitations imposed by population ‘ and other restraints. It is claimed that the only other country with unlimited airspace, as available at Woomera, in which military pilots can be trained in an unrestricted fashion is the Soviet Union.

The RAAF study is understood to have examined systems produced by Cubic Corporation for the US Navy and the US Air Force. Basically these are a Tactical Combat Training System (TACTS – AN/USQ-T2 V) and an Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation Range (ACMI -AN/USQ-T12). Combined they represent the most advanced and realistic instrumentation system devised to that point for training aircrews and maintaining their efficiency in tactical warfare. So far Cubic has built more than a dozen complete TACTS/ACM! systems for the US and various Allied Forces.

Cubic describes TACTS/ACM! as a computer based data communication and tracking network that provides information to range training officers as observers on the flight dynamics, weapon system status and weapons firing of all aircraft engaged in a training mission. It does this in real time. All the data is recorded so that a thorough and accurate debrief can be conducted by the aircrews at any time after the mission.

Development of the TACTS/ACM! systems followed a report to the US Navy on air combat effectiveness which showed that in the Vietnam war, even with modern aircraft equipped with air-toair weapons, the success ratio was deficient. In 1971 Cubic Defence Systems beat General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, Grumman and Singer for a contract to design and build an air combat training system. It was then known as an Air Combat Manoeuvring Range. (ACMR). First installed at the Naval Air Station at Yuma, Arizona, it became operational in 1973. The USAF then took up other contracts. The biggest systems are operational at Nellis Air Force base, near Los Vegas, Nevada and at Fallon Naval Air Station, California.

TACTS/ACMI permits pilots of high performance aircraft to be pitted against each other in mock air battles without firing live ordnance. Every move made by a pilot in the air is monitored in real time on three-dimensional colour graphic displays by a range training officer on the ground. The entire mission is recorded on tape and is replayed for debriefing.

Operationally demonstrated training capabilities can include:

• air combat manoeuvring training with multiple weapons;

• air-to-ground no-drop bomb scoring;

• Shrike missile scoring;

• electronic warfare training; and

• no-drop mine iaying.

The TACTS/ACMI system is made up of four major subsystems. They are: the Aircraft Instrumentation Subsystem (AIS); the. Tracking Instrumentation Subsystem (TIS); the Control and the Computation Subsystem (CCS) and the Display and Debriefing Subsystem (DDS).

The latest system, current two years ago, accommodates 36 airborne participants, with numerous ground threat sites. It can be carried as an external pod, or internally (as designed for the F-18 Hornet) and provides altitude, velocity and weapons data to the ground station. Such a system would be a tremendous training aid for the RAAF.