Defence Update – Jindivik Replacement

The source selection decision timetable, which has envisaged contract signing about August, is basically driven by the need to have a replacement for the Jindivik system available for the Eastern Australia Exercise Area on the NSW South Coast when it runs out of life at the end of 1997.

It also envisages operating the system for the Western Australian Exercise Area, based from the Fleet Base West at HMAS Stirling on Cockburn Sound, WA.

The current JP7 Phase 4 covers the acquisition of sufficient supplies of target aircraft and towed targets for the ADF to provide about 350 “presentations” for a nine year period between 1997 and 2006.

Other elements of Phase 4, which was approved in the context of the Budget in May 1995, include ground control stations, associated ground support equipment, target recovery equipment, telecommand relays and maintenance facilities. It is intended that these will continue in service for JP7 Phase 5 which will take in an extended period from 2006 to 2015. However as it is outside the Ten Year Defence Programme (TYDP), it will be the subject of a separate capability submission early in the 21st Century.

The AATS Request for Tender (RFT) was issued on October 7 1995 and closed on January 31 1996. Industry briefings were held at the RAN College, HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay, on October 31, and at HMAS Stirling on November 3.

The successful tenderer is likely to come from:

1 Air Affairs Australia, Kentron (South Africa) and Siemens Plessey Electronics Systems — with the Skua;

2 ADI Ltd (Australian Defence Industries) and Aerospatiale (France) — the C22L;

3 AWA Defence Industries (AWADI) and Alenia (Italy) — the Mirach 100;

4 British Aerospace Australia, and Raytheon/Beech (USA) — the MQM-107E;

5 Clough Engineering and Teledyne Ryan (USA) — the Firebee (refer pic p9 April 96 AA); or

6 Rockwell/ASTA (AeroSpace Technologies of Australia, which is a Rockwell Australia subsidiary) — the MQM-107E.

JP7 Phase 4 has followed three phases of earlier Jindivik purchases. The Australian Jindivik pilotless target aircraft was designed and developed by GAF scientists and engineers. It is powered by a Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet.

These Jindivik target aircraft have been operated under commercial contract to provide the capability to safely present towed targets for missile firings by the Navy and the Air Force. A full history of the type appears in our regular Aircraft Of The ADF series in this issue.

ASTA is currently building the latest version of the Jindivik for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. However the Australian Department of Defence, after careful analysis, decided that the aerial target system capability could be better achieved in the longer term by the acquisition of a more modern system.

Prospective tenderers were advised that aircraft attrition and obsolescence of the Ground Control Station (GCS) and associated support equipment has meant that ongoing operations have become increasingly problematic to the extent that the Jindivik system is unlikely to remain in operational service past December 1997.

The Department of Defence issued a restricted RFT to ASTA in 1990 for the provision of a new generation Jindivik system as part of a joint development with the UK Ministry of Defence. Phases 1 to 3 were approved, and a Project Definition Study (PDS) was completed under Phase 1.

But Defence did not proceed with Phase 2 (the Full Scale Engineering Development) and Phase 3 (procurement) due to cost increases and the inability of the new generation Jindivik to meet desired capability requirements.

A follow-on study in 1993 led to the ADF’s requirements for unmanned aerial targets being renamed the ADF Aerial Targets System (AATS). It was designated a Category 2 Major Project which means that its cost ranges from $60 million to a top of $200 million.

Some of the key points in the JP7 Phase 4 evaluation are:

Tenderers are encouraged to use the Australian Industry Involvement requirements as a vehicle to provide an Australian capability to support the AATS in service. They are required to propose an AII programme which meets Industry Objectives.

The proposed AII programme should demonstrate the tenderer’s ability to meet operational performance requirements through the life of the system, and should also demonstrate the commitment of the tenderer to an industry programme.

The acquisition of target range control, range control, range safety control, weapon performance measurement, and range surveillance equipment is not included as part of the acquisition of the capability. However speech and target navigation data have been provided for other presentation participants.

While the JP7 Phase 4 RFT documentation does not specifically exclude the Jindivik from further consideration, there is a requirement that the AATS should be capable of operating from sites (including HMAS Stirling) which have no runways. That would appear to exclude the Jindivik.

Essential requirements have been reduced to about 15 items. They include the deployment of towed targets, operation from bare sites; interfaces with the target safety and control voice intercommunications network; control of the UAT up to and including a distance of 28nm at low level; endurance (60 minutes) and others.

The main base will be on the NSW South Coast to service the Eastern Australian Exercise Area, with a secondary base in the west. It is likely that there could be deployments to both coastal and land locked ranges such as Woomera (SA) and North West Cape (WA).

Another desirable factor is that the RFT provides for consideration of, and the promotion of support services, aerial target systems and target services as an export, particularly when export enhances the sustainability and support capability of the systems and services over Life of Type.