The most complex part of the Hunter class frigates is the combat system, and the workforce model developed by BAE Systems and the Commonwealth is a gold standard approach for Enterprise collaboration. Shortly after the Australian Government announced BAE Systems Australia as preferred tenderer for the Hunter Class Frigate Program, we selected, as partners, Lockheed Martin Australia and Saab Australia to assist us in the development and the delivery of the frigate’s combat system.
Hunter will be equipped with the US Navy’s Aegis combat management system, produced by Lockheed Martin and procured through a Foreign Military Sales agreement, with an Australian interface developed by Saab Australia. The frigate’s combat management system is the heart of the ship – and incredibly complex. It’s a computer system that integrates the warship’s weapons, sensors and Australian-designed and built radar into one single highly effective and capable system, providing the crew an integrated warfare management system that enables them to perform multiple combat missions, threat management and engagement scenarios simultaneously.
While Hunter’s combat systems workforce component started as separate companies working with BAE Systems as the head contractor, now, under a deed, we are moving to a collaboration model where all four organisations, including the Commonwealth, work as a single integrated team with a single common objective which is to deliver a fully integrated (with ship) combat system.
The collaboration is known as the Combat Systems Integration – Integrated Project Team (CSI-IPT). Under the collaboration model/agreement, all four organisations are collectively, rather than individually, incentivised to deliver combat systems capability to the Navy’s Aegis Combat System fitted surface fleet, and focus their collective resources on solving the complex integration challenges rather than protecting individual scope boundaries. At the heart of the collaboration is the Commonwealth, in the form of the Maritime Integrated Warfare Systems branch.
Team roles in the CSI-IPT – from graduate engineers to the Head of Combat Systems – are filled by an equal mix from all partnering members, and the majority of people work at a single location, facilitating strong employee engagement and a ‘one team’ environment that enhances the culture and ownership of shared outcomes.
Within the team there is a real commitment to develop and support a sovereign, capable combat system workforce comprised of a mosaic of talent – adopting a ‘best athlete for the project’ principle. Leaders from all four organisations function as a single management team, which meets regularly to discuss employee growth, career development and common recruitment approaches, and collaboratively address any and all issues or concerns. In 2022, all four parties supported a Saab employee being appointed interim head of the CSI-IPT, demonstrating the strength of the one team approach.
Being able to leverage the knowledge and expertise of all four organisations has helped us grow a capability and workforce that no one organisation could achieve in isolation. Working in a collaboration also means we aren’t competing for highly-skilled people in what is already a limited talent pool – by combining resources and people, we have the team required to deliver. Even more importantly, by pooling resources and working together in a tight labour market means we can ensure the men and women in the Royal Australian Navy get what they need to keep all of us safe and secure.
The partnership represents the start of a genuine industrial transformation that lays the foundation for the fighting heart of Navy’s future warships to be designed, built and maintained in Australia.
The success of the workforce model is also a game-changer for future defence programs. Hunter is just the beginning – this is about safeguarding Australia’s future resilience through an enduring sovereign defence industrial capability.