The ultimate goal of Network Centric Warfare is to have everything linked – basically every person, platform, sensor and weapon is connected to the system and has an IP address. Australia’s three services have been steadily improving their internal connectivity – with varying levels of success – and now an important further step has been taken in the development of a fully integrated national system. On August 5, Defence Minister Peter Dutton announced that two companies – Lockheed Martin Australia and Northrop Grumman Australia – have been shortlisted for AIR 6500, saying:
“The Morrison Government’s $2.7 billion investment in a sovereign Joint Air Battle Management System will deliver a critical capability to defend against increasingly advanced air and missile threats.
“Through the competitive evaluation process, Australian industry has demonstrated its versatility and adaptability to provide innovative proposals in the challenging field of Integrated Air and Missile Defence.
“The Joint Air Battle Management System will connect our ships, aircraft and other capabilities together in a way that multiplies their defensive power.”
Some readers might shudder at the words “competitive evaluation process” – pioneered for the future submarine project, which five years and $2 billion later has yet to deliver anything of substance – but this is the world that we live in with an actual tender with, you know, formal performance guarantees and stuff being a thing of the past. Perhaps this is because AIR 6500 is an evolving multi-phase activity, starting life as an Integrated Air and Missile Defence System. It is now broader than that with the additional objective of full inter-service connectivity – though the air and missile defence part will establish the system architecture.
This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the entire story, click here.
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