Annual Report 2004-05

Approved Major Capital Equipment Projects

Top 30 Projects by 2004-05 Expenditure

SEA 1411 Ph 1 Anzac Ship Helicopter

Prime contractor: Kaman Aerospace International Corporation

This project will acquire 11 maritime combat helicopters for the Anzac-class frigates, providing an enhanced capability for surface surveillance, anti-ship warfare, contact investigation and maritime utility tasks. The acquisition includes a full mission flight simulator and a software support centre.

Nine of the 11 Super Seasprite maritime combat helicopters have been provisionally accepted in Australia. Of the remaining two aircraft, one is in final assembly in Australia and one remains in the United States for ongoing flight testing. Provisional acceptance of the helicopters has been used to mitigate the impact of the late delivery of the integrated weapons and sensor software by the contractor. This has allowed the commencement of flight trials and initial squadron training in an interim training configuration. During 2004-05, 826 Super Seasprite hours were flown by the Navy.

The contractor continued to make positive but slower than scheduled progress in completing the integration of the full capability software. Flight testing by the contractor of the full functionality commenced in November 2004. Testing of this software should be completed in November 2005, allowing the contractor to offer the first full capability helicopter for acceptance in June 2006.

The project did not achieve its 2004-05 budget estimate due to software integration and testing activities delaying the first full capability helicopter acceptance milestone from May 2005 to December 2005. It did, however, achieve its revised expenditure target.

This project contributes to Navy capability.