Australian Department of Defense,
The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, today inspected the Wedgetail integration laboratory at BAE Systems Australia’s Edinburgh facility.
“The Wedgetail capability is critical to Australia’s future Air Combat Capability and will play a key role in achieving our network-enabled war fighting capability,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“The Wedgetail project continues to cause a high degree of concern for me. As the lead customer for the aircraft, we are currently bearing significant risk in bringing this capability into service. Given the cost and importance of the Wedgetail project, it is something the Government is paying very close attention to,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
This visit to the facilities allowed Mr Fitzgibbon to view for himself the work that BAE Systems Australia, one of the major subcontractors on the Wedgetail project, is conducting. This included design and development of the Electronic Support Measures and Electronic Warfare Self Protection subsystems, Operational Mission Simulator, Missions Support System and AEW&C (software) Support Facility.
While Mr Fitzgibbon was encouraged by the capabilities displayed by BAE Systems Australia, he remained firm in his position that all of the companies involved in the delivery of the Wedgetail project must lift their game to ensure that there are no further delays to the project.
“I was disappointed to be informed recently by the prime contractor on the project, Boeing, that there will be a further slippage of 10 months in the delivery of the first fully capable aircraft. This is a total delay of 38 months against the original contract the former Government entered into,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Boeing now proposes adopting an incremental delivery approach and plans to deliver the first two aircraft, capable of undertaking training roles and national peacetime tasking, in July 2009, and subsequently upgrade them to fully mission capable status by January 2010. Boeing plans to deliver the remaining aircraft as fully mission-capable aircraft in early 2010.
“While I am assured by Defence that this current delay can be managed without materially impacting Australia’s air combat capability, industry must continue to make a sustained effort until program completion in order to meet Australia’s war fighting capability requirements,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
