BAE Systems Hunter Class Frigate Program

Announcement of Lloyd’s Register and BAE Systems Maritime Australia collaboration

BAE Systems Maritime Australia (BAESMA) and Lloyd’s Register (LR) are pleased to announce that from January 2021 they will be working together on a program that will help the Australian Industry prepare to offer products that meet the requirements of LR ...
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Announcement of Lloyd’s Register and BAE Systems Maritime Australia collaboration

BAE Systems Maritime Australia (BAESMA) and Lloyd’s Register (LR) are pleased to announce that from January 2021 they will be working together on a program that will help the Australian Industry prepare to offer products that meet the requirements of LR Classification of the Hunter Class Frigate New Construction Program. Following transfer of required LR knowledge to a small team of BAESMA personnel, this team will be available to assist and advise relevant Industry participants in the requirements of LR certification. This support will be available to those organisations that have been identified by ASCS as potential suppliers of material, equipment and components that require LR certification for the Hunter Class Project or one of the Hunter Class Project’s Original Equipment Manufacturers. Please contact Brian Condon for further inquiry.

Hunter Class Frigate Program remains on target

A word from Craig Lockhart, Managing Director BAE Systems Maritime Australia : " The next two years of prototyping will be incredibly important as we prove our systems and manufacturing processes ahead of construction starting at the end of 2022.

Australian companies will play a significant role in the prototyping phase – the overwhelming majority of the content provided will be from Australian sourced materials and services.

In parallel, we’re also working with Australian industry and academia to explore and test local technologies that could contribute to the efficiency of the construction phase.

BAESMA will build nine submarine hunting warships for the Royal Australian Navy over the next three decades using advanced manufacturing technologies that link digital engineer design with automated technologies and digitise work packs for shipbuilders on the ground. Nearly 1,400 Australian businesses have registered their interest in the program via the online Industry Capability Network.

The Hunter Class frigate is based on the Type 26 Global Combat Ship design, which supports a close partnership between the UK Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, all of whom have selected a variant of the design for their anti-submarine frigate programs, supporting greater operational, training and intelligence ties."

Australian Industry Capability (AIC) opportunities

ASC Shipbuilding (Trading as BAE Systems Maritime Australia) is committed to maximising AIC through the HCFP. To support this commitment, ASC Shipbuilding has created a supplementary ICN page with intent to update industry by publishing a quarterly update, which is in addition to the series of planned webinars. This quarterly update can be viewed HERE and will include:

• Commitments to maximise AIC
• Contribution to Continuous Naval Shipbuilding
• Work package category definitions
• Forecast Request for Proposal (RFP) release dates
• Expectations for OEM responses to issued RFPs
• Details on recent, and planned, industry engagement sessions
  
• ASC Shipbuilding also plans to update industry on successful partnerships between OEMs and industry for supply into the HCFP.
• Industry Engagement overview
• List of engagements that have already been conducted with OEMs and SMEs, including a current list of RFP's issued to date.

Don’t miss the opportunity for engagement with ASC Shipbuilding! See the above link to contact ASC Shipbuilding for your chance to talk with us about AIC or the HCFP.

Project Details

In June 2018 the Australian Government (“the Commonwealth”) announced that BAE Systems was selected as the preferred tenderer for the Hunter Class Frigate Program (HCFP) to deliver nine anti-submarine warfare frigates to the Royal Australian Navy.

The Commonwealth announced at the same time that ASC Shipbuilding would become a subsidiary of BAE Systems Australia Ltd, and that through BAE Systems, ASC Shipbuilding would be responsible for the delivery of the frigates.

The first phase of the Head Contract is known as the Design and Productionisation (D&P) Phase. During the D&P Phase we will publish further details of the Hunter program’s Australian Industry Capability (AIC) strategy. Click HERE to read all about the HCFP at our BAE Systems Australia newsroom.

Upcoming Opportunities

Score - Manufacture & Supply of Wholeship Valves

Please be advised that further Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the manufacture and supply of wholeship valves and associated equipment for the HCFP will be published in the near future.

Future opportunities

During the D&P Phase significant opportunities for Australian suppliers to participate in the HCFP will be created. The two key milestones during this phase are the commencement of prototyping in 2020 and cutting steel on the first ship in 2022. In order to ensure industry involvement we will continue engaging with industry and market testing through a variety of activities.

We are also encouraging the OEMs on the Type 26 Reference Ship Design to continue their industry engagement, assessing local industry capabilities and conducting market testing. Our Global Access Program and supply chain organisation will continue to facilitate and support this.

This ICN portal will continue to be used as the vehicle for registering expressions of interest and posting all non-export controlled work packages available to Australian industry and supporting pre-qualification activities.

Upcoming engagement events

We will continue to advise of HCFP engagement events through ICN email notifications.

To ensure you are kept up to date, please make sure you have a registered account with the ICN against the HCFP.

If you aren’t registered with the ICN, please click the link HERE to begin the registration process.

Relationship Announcement

On 12 Feb 2021, MARL International (MARL) (Cumbria, UK) signed a formal Teaming Agreement with REDARC Defence Systems Pty Ltd for the provision of maritime intelligent LED Lighting Systems in support of Australian continuous ship building Program.

Under the Teaming Agreement, REDARC will be responsible to develop the AIC Enhanced proposal as the Prime Systems Integrator to support the first three ships to be built by BAE Maritime Systems Australia as the HCFP.

Marl are the appointed lighting provider for T26 batch 1 and currently providing a quote for HCFP batch 1 LED lighting with significant input from REDARC.

REDARC Defence Systems (REDARC) is an Australian owned and based Defence SME, that is part of the REDARC Electronics. REDARC currently employs over 250 people and exports its own products globally. In the last twelve months REDARC has grown its team to include staff in the United States and in Europe.

REDARC will advertise all work packages up for consideration on the ICN Gateway and encourages Australian Industry to register interest at the appropriate time.

Information - Microsoft Exchange Vulnerability

The Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has advised of Microsoft Exchange server critical vulnerabilities.  Microsoft has identified that if successfully exploited, the vulnerability would allow an unauthenticated attacker to write files and execute code with elevated privileges on the underlying Microsoft Windows operating system.

The key defensive measure that Australian organisations can take is to deploy security patches to their systems as soon as possible.  Instructions are available from https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/alerts/exchange-server-critical-vulnerabilities

A large number of Australian organisations are yet to implement the patches, leaving them vulnerable to compromise.  We encourage our partners to follow the ACSC's advice urging organisations using Microsoft Exchange to urgently deploy the patches.

The ACSC is monitoring the situation and is able to provide assistance and advice as required.

Organisations that have been impacted or require assistance can contact the ACSC via 1300 CYBER

DISP information

Click HERE for information regarding DISP Membership and how to apply.