Enhancing Lethality from The Sea – Missile Upgrades for the Royal Australian Navy

The Australian government is investing heavily in upgrading the lethality and survivability of the navy at sea.

Australia’s National Defence Strategy issued in 2024 outlines a denial strategy and states, “Defence must possess sufficient capability to credibly hold at risk forces that could attempt to project power against Australian territory and our northern approaches.

Specified capability investment priorities include:

  • Developing maritime capabilities for sea denial and localised sea control operations that provide Defence with the ability to deny the use of an area of the sea when needed and provide the ADF with freedom of action; and
  • Developing the ADF’s ability to strike targets at longer range precisely.”

Through project SEA 1300 Phase 1, the government is investing in new anti-ship, long-range strike, and anti-aircraft missile systems.

The Harpoon anti-ship missile is being replaced by the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile, which has a significantly greater range. The weapon is modern, effective, and survivable and will be progressively installed in Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers and Anzac Class frigates from 2024.

Kongsberg Defence Australia has signed several contracts with Australian suppliers, including Aerobond, Axiom Precision Manufacturing, Nupress Group, Marand Precision Engineering, and others, to support the capability’s introduction into the Australian fleet.

In recent imagery released by Defence, HMAS Sydney is shown underway off Sydney heads with at least one Naval Strike Missile canister visible in the space behind the primary superstructure customarily occupied by four Harpoon missiles.

Speaking in Senate Estimates on 5 June 2024, the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, said that some of the missiles had already been fitted on some of Australia’s Anzac class frigates and Hobart class destroyers.

Australia is also acquiring up to 200 Block V RGM-109E Tomahawk missiles and 20 Tomahawk Block IV RGM-109E missiles. Block IV Tomahawk is for land attack, and Block V is an anti-ship missile. The weapons will be installed in Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers, and a separate study will be undertaken to investigate the feasibility of fitting the weapon system in the navy’s new Hunter Class frigates, which have just commenced construction.

Tomahawk launches from a Mk.41 Vertical Launch System, so installing them aboard the Hobart-class DDGs will not be a significant issue. Targeting requires additional equipment –the Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System and the Theatre Mission Planning Centre). Supporting equipment for Tomahawk is being acquired through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales process.

Australia has long been a key contributor to the development of the Evolved Sea Sparrow Block 2 missile program. Early this decade, it commenced investment in developing the Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC and the Standard Missile 6 Block 1 to meet Australia’s surface-to-air missile capability requirements.

The ESSM Block 2 missile replaces Block 1 missiles in Anzac Class frigates.

The SM-2 Block IIIC weapon will replace the Block IIIB missiles now in the Royal Australian Navy service. The SM-6 Block 1, a longer-range air defence weapon, can also be used as an anti-ship weapon and, in the future, provide a ballistic missile defence capability. This requires upgrading the Aegis combat system used by the Navy’s Hobart class Air Warfare Destroyers (and, in the future, Hunter class frigates) to a Baseline 9.0 configuration. Australia will likely become one of the first export customers for the SM-6 missile.

Australia’s planned participation in future Standard Missile development ensures that Aegis-fitted surface combatants, such as the Hobart-class destroyer and Hunter-class frigates, are fielding the most advanced systems in the world.

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What Success Looks Like

The Commonwealth Government’s Pacific Maritime Security Program

 

The Commonwealth’s Pacific Maritime Security Program (PMSP) is vital in shaping Australia’s strategic environment and responding to growing challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

The program is a $2 billion commitment comprising the delivery of new Guardian-class patrol boats, region-wide integrated aerial surveillance, and enhancements to regional coordination.

Under the PMSP, Australia originally intended to deliver 21 Guardian-class patrol boats to 12 Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste between 2018 and 2023. The new boats are designed to replace existing Pacific-class patrol boats that have been in service since the 1980s.

The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project (Sea 3036 Phase 1) was awarded to Austal in May 2016 for the original nineteen vessels’ design, construction, and sustainment. An additional contract option was awarded in April 2018 for two further vessels to be delivered to Timor Leste.

The 39.5-metre steel monohull Guardian-class patrol boat was designed to meet Defence’s specific requirements based on a proven design platform that has included the thirty-eight-metre Bay-class, fifty-six-metre Armidale-class, and fifty-eight-metre Cape-class patrol boats previously developed by Austal for the Australian Border Force and Royal Australian Navy.

The Guardian-class is faster and more economical. It can travel up to 3,000 nautical miles at 12 knots. It also has improved seakeeping and onboard amenities and greater operational capability for conducting border patrols, regional policing, and search and rescue.

Since late 2018, Austal’s Cairns Service Centre has coordinated local support for the growing Guardian-class fleet by incorporating a 1,200-tonne (80 metre LOA) slipway and a 1,120-tonne mobile boat hoist.

While Austal does not cover direct maintenance of the new vessels – that responsibility lies with the Pacific nations – Austal’s Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement In Service Support (PPBR-ISS) program includes a ‘reach-back’ service which provides a 24-hour support hotline, the delivery of spare parts where requested, and in-country support, too, where requested.

The boats also return to Cairns for service visits on a 30-monthly and 60-monthly cycle.

The first Guardian-class vessel was gifted to Papua New Guinea in November 2018.

In June 2022, it was announced that Samoa would receive an additional patrol boat to replace Nafanua II, which had grounded on a reef in August 2021 and was beyond repair.

In February 2023, it was announced that a 23rd boat would be built and gifted to Kiribati to supplement RKS Teanoai II, which was handed over in 2021.

In June 2024, Austal was awarded a further contract for two more Guardian-class vessels for gifting to Pacific Island nations.

Vessel allocation as of June 2024:

PNG – HMPNGS Ted Diro, HMPNGS Rochus Lokinap, HMPNGS Francis Agwi, PNGDS Gilbert Toropo.

Tuvalu – HMTSS Te Mataili II.

Tonga – VOEA Ngahau Koula, VOEA Ngahau Siliva.

Samoa – Nafanua II (Grounded and assessed beyond repair), Nafanua III.

Solomon Is – RSIPV Gizo, RSIPV Taro.

Fiji – RFNS Savenaca, RFNS Puamau.

Palau – PSS Remeliik II.

Kiribati – RKS Teanoai II, plus one to be named.

Federated States of Micronesia – FSS Tosiwo Nakayama, FSS David W. Panuelo.

Cook Islands – CIPPB Te Kukupa II.

Republic of the Marshall Islands – RMIS Jelmae.

Timor Leste – NRTL Aitana, NRTL Laline.

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Cancellation of Collins Class Submarine Optronics System Upgrade

In April 2022, then Minister for Defence Peter Dutton announced a $381 million commitment to upgrade the Royal Australian Navy’s Collins Class submarine fleet with an advanced optronics system to improve stealth capability.

To be delivered from Osborne Shipyard in South Australia, the upgrades involved placing a digital camera on an extendable mast-raising system outside the pressure hull. The non-hull penetrating system was designed to capture imagery faster before transmitting data into the submarine digitally via a watertight cable.

The innovative technology was also expected to increase the space available in the submarines by removing the large periscope column.

The upgrades would have provided RAN crews with experience using optronics systems, which are fitted to US Virginia Class submarines and are likely to be part of the design for SSN AUKUS.

HMAS Rankin was set to be the first Collins Class submarine to be fitted with the new optronics system in 2024 (she is about to undergo a two-year Full-Cycle Docking), and the technology is expected to be operational by 2026.

In February 2024, during a Senate Estimates hearing, Senator Jacqui Lambie raised concerns about the periscope. She questioned whether the Australian Defence Force provided the best value for money with the upgrades.

By then, Defence had reportedly spent over $48 million upgrading the submarines from the current hull-penetrating periscope to an optronic mast sensor. According to comments made at the Senate Estimates, the new periscopes had yet to be trialled or installed and were in a design works phase. Defence accepted questions on notice regarding how many new periscopes had already been purchased and how many had been delivered to Australia.

Senator Lambie said, “We still haven’t decided whether we are going to use them. That is where we are at? We have spent $48 million. We have bought others; there are probably some here in Australia, and we may not even use them. I am worried about the spend here.”

“I have no idea why you wouldn’t just bring one in and trial it. If you have others sitting there, what a waste of taxpayers’ money that is. This is why we have procurement problems: $48 million. Do you know what that sort of money could do out there? Seriously.”

On 5 June 2024, the Albanese Government announced that it had approved a Life-of-Type Extension for Australia’s six Collins Class submarines. However, the government stated that an optronics upgrade for the submarines, announced by the former Coalition government, would not proceed following advice that it would have added complexity and risk to the life-of-type extension program.

 

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