In my then 11-year shipbuilding career, I was able to recognise how transformational this program would be – and is now – for Australia which, along with the prospect of having real influence on how to best optimise the design and build, gave me a lot of confidence and excitement for the future of Australia’s defence.
As the Global Combat Ship Head of Manufacturing Engineering, I am, at the risk of sounding biased, perhaps best placed to witness Australian know-how at work in utilising designs and putting them into practice on the shopfloor.
There’s been a big focus lately, from the government and media alike, on advanced manufacturing within Australia, and there is no better example of this skillset and technology than at the Osborne Naval Shipyard, where we are building the Hunter class frigates.
We’re taking the best of what other industries – like the automotive and aerospace industries – have and adapting them for use in the shipyard. In fact, the make-up of my team reflects that: we have people who spent years in those industries, and have brought that knowledge with them to the Hunter program.
So too has knowledge been brought from the UK on the Type 26 program to Hunter. I myself benefitted from a 2-year assignment working alongside my UK colleagues to lead the transfer of shipbuilding knowledge to Australia, with tools and processes part of that.
Myself and other Australians assembled from our ship sustainment and build sites across Australia adopted, adapted, and enhanced that know-how for Hunter.
We have interactive 3D models of the ship, as well as all the individual components within it – from bulkheads right through to individual pieces of piping.
We design unit and block lifts and rotations, which occur during the build sequence, in Computer-Aided Design (CAD), including conducting Finite Element Analysis to maintain the build accuracy, using a technique frequently used in Formula 1.
We map out the exact build sequence, down to individual parts, weeks to months ahead of when the job cards are issued in the shipyard.
We record every installation, and the rationale for choosing what order they are installed in, so we have a database that we can use for subsequent ships, further optimising the build time.
We digitally simulate the entire build process from the receipt of raw steel, right through to the ship being launched.
Every day at the Osborne Naval Shipyard and at Line Zero in Tonsley we push the manufacturing boundaries of what is possible.
This is not being done anywhere else in the world, on a program of this scale.
What we’re seeing as a result of this is international recognition of our advanced welding and manufacturing processes delivering world-leading steel build quality.
I liken us to a Formula 1 team – and I don’t just mean our processes – as success is delivered by possessing the best car (the shipyard), car design (Hunter), driver skill (our knowledge), and pit team preparation and support (our workforce).
We are getting the combination of shipyard, design, and support right, and we have already started the race with our Schedule Protection Blocks, which will be used in the first Hunter class frigate.
That’s why I believe in Hunter.
