The Royal Australian Navy is in the midst of major modernization and upgrade programs, including construction of its first warships equipped with the Lockheed Martin Aegis weapon system, in support of the Department of Defence's white paper, released in May. The first of two Spanish-built 26,000-ton LHD amphibious assault ships - the largest warships ever built for Australia - will enter service in 2014. Other key programs are upgrading existing submarines and designing new ones, and buying new helicopters. The Navy also is contending with ongoing coalition deployments and corporate raiding of its personnel.
Vice Adm. Russ Crane, who worked his way up from the enlisted ranks, picking up qualifications in mine warfare and clearance diving, became the Navy's top officer in 2008.
A. I would suggest it's more than rhetoric. It's commitment to talk about the issues that are on our mind and sharing them in a global sense with our counterparts. A very important piece of work which goes to transparency, it goes to building partnerships, and more importantly building trust.
What came out of this year's symposium is the very real work going on globally, regionally at this stage, in coming to grips with understanding what's happening in the maritime environment. Getting that recognized maritime picture. We're doing it very well regionally. What we really want is to take this to the next level where we can begin to share regional information globally. It's important that we can connect and talk to each other.
A. The problems are multifaceted. First is the detail - you've got to have systems that can talk to each other, and that needs a level of cooperation. You then get to the issue of partnership and trust. Partnership can be the willingness to share information, and trust that when you do it will be appropriately protected and regarded.
In my part of the world, we have a very good system that operates in cooperation with countries like Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand. There's a good mix of countries committing to this outcome of sharing the regional maritime picture to our collective advantage.
A. There is a cost with any operation, and the cost is the effect on your people. But at the moment, the deployment profile we have in place is something that Australia has committed to and something that, from the Navy's perspective, I'm comfortable we can maintain without any detriment to our people.
We also get a great deal out of these deployments in terms of experience - professional experience and life experience. Over the last probably 12 years, I've seen a fundamental change in the Navy in the way we've committed to our operations. I now see sailors and officers in a very early stage of their careers that have deployed in harm's way and have gained that experience. That is a positive for the professional status of the Navy.
A. BMD is not a capability we've put in place at the moment. There hasn't been a decision either way. I think the government is looking to keep its options open. Aegis gives us a path into that area if that's one where we decide to go.
A. Yes, the white paper provided an additional 700 people for the Navy. That will assist us enormously, but the LHDs and the Air Warfare Destroyers will be manned by existing capability.
The real challenge is in making sure those fundamental inputs that go with the number of personnel are in place - correctly train the personnel, [provide] the necessary logistic support, the science and technological support that you need for a capability. And that really is where I will be having my attention over the next few years.
A. We will be using the Army's MRH-90 helicopter. Some will be embarked continuously to practice deck landing qualifications and that type of thing. But it's a different model [of air group] than one you might understand in the U.S. The troops that embark in our LHDs will be Army, the helicopters will be Army. The crew of the ship will be a mixture - largely of Navy, but also of Army people who will be operating the amphibious ship-to-shore connectors. And there will be Air Force [personnel] operating the air traffic control around the ship. It will be a true joint capability.
A. We've retained the ski jump on the deck, but we don't have any plans at this stage for fixed-wing operations. But the ship will be built to its existing design, which supports fixed-wing operations.
A. Our government is still looking very closely at the JSF. There is an increasing awareness of its capability, but it's a matter for government, and we're keeping advised. I can't give you any more than that. We haven't committed absolutely to the program in terms of signing up for a number of aircraft.
A. It was a key element of our recent white paper. It is a matter of priority, and we are looking to procure at least 24 aircraft. My hope is that we will engage the government soon, within the next few months, with a proposed acquisition strategy.
A. What we've got at the moment is a manning issue. I've got sufficient crews in place to man three of our six submarines. So there is some stress on our submarine manpower. That came on because, in particular, my technicians are very attractive to commercial industry. There is a boom in the mineral and mining sectors in Western Australia - and all our submarines are based in Western Australia.
They were the sorts of people they wanted and we lost a number of them. Having said that, we've now had a very active campaign to do a couple of things. To retain the people we've got, we've passed an incentive program which consists of both remuneration or monetary incentive, but more importantly lifestyle incentives, whereby our people have the chance to take a break, which perhaps they didn't have before. It means the ability for people to come ashore and stay for a time before they get posted back to sea.
That is beginning to have an effect. I'm seeing retention rates in my submarine force increase quite dramatically at the moment. Separation rates are reducing. I've got good numbers in new volunteers. I'm actually quite excited in the submarine capability in the future. All this has happened over the last 12 months. And I will have another crew, a fourth crew, on board before the end of 2011.
A. We've had women at sea on submarines since 1999, both enlisted and officers, and it has been a real success story for us. It's been an enormous advantage in terms of numbers, but also in terms of management. It's been very easy, hasn't presented us with any large difficulties.
A. We have the policy of complete diversity. If you're gay, that's not an issue for sailors in the Navy.
A. The development of the Chinese Navy in particular is not something that alarms me. It is something that I watch with great interest, but I'm not alarmed. It's a natural progression of China's economic development.
We talk and work with the Chinese Navy regularly. We have deployed either with ship visits perhaps every other year. We've had Chinese visits to Australia, and we've conducted exercises which are largely constructed around humanitarian or disaster relief operations. So the development of the Chinese Navy is not something I am alarmed about or troubled with, although I do take a great interest in what they are doing.
A. Like China, I think India has a legitimate expectation that, as the country develops further, their own defense organization needs to develop. I talk and work with the Indian Navy regularly.
It's a function of an exciting part of the world at the moment. The southeast and south Asian areas are growth regions. All of those countries are starting to look at how they position in that growth, how they position their defense organization. I don't perceive any of them as a direct threat to either Australia or other countries. ■
-- By Christopher P. Cavas in Washington.
■ Personnel: 12,693 active-duty officers and sailors (2008), 8,769 total reserves.
■ Ships: 6 submarines, 3 destroyers (on order), 12 frigates, 8 minesweepers, 14 patrol boats, 2 LHD amphibious assault ships (under construction), 3 medium amphibious ships, 6 landing craft.
■ Aircraft: P-3C Orion maritime surveillance and Wedgetail airborne early warning; S-70B-2 Seahawk, SH-2G(A) Seasprite, Sea King HAS 50 and MRH-90 helicopters.
Source: Royal Australian Navy
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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