The Royal Australian Navy’s highly effective decoy system, Nulka, will continue to defend Australia’s ships against anti-ship missiles with a three year support contract recently signed by BAE Systems Australia.

BAE Systems Australia won an in-service support contract to maintain and support the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) Nulka Anti-Ship Missile Defence System and Launch Sub-Systems.

The system is currently fitted to all RAN frigates and will be installed on the new Air Warfare Destroyers.
Conceived and initially developed in Australia by DSTO, the Nulka system is a great Australian achievement.

The Nulka decoy seduces hostile anti-ship missiles away from its host ship using the manoeuvre capabilities of a hovering rocket.

The main components of the Nulka System are the decoy round and its Launch Sub-System.

The hovering flight vehicle component of the Nulka round was developed in Australia by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).

In the late 1980’s it became a joint Australian and United States project with the United States Navy (USN) agreeing to enter into collaborative development with Australia of an anti-ship missile decoy, based on the hovering rocket principle.

The United State's contribution to the program was a missile-seducing electronic payload developed by the US Navy Research Laboratory (NRL).

Subsequently, the DSTO technology has been transferred to BAE Systems and the NRL payload technology was transferred to US company, Lockheed Martin Sippican.

BAE Systems Australia and ADI manufacture most components for the flight vehicle in Australia.

The system is now in service with the Royal Australian Navy, United States Navy and Canadian Navy.

The United States Navy (USN) has fitted the Nulka system to over 50 ships and is expected to continue to fit the system to its ships at a rate of 12 to 14 ships per year.

It is projected that Nulka will be installed on more than 140 naval ships, including 130 from the USN, three from the Canadian Navy (CN) and more than 12 RAN ships.

The Nulka program has created more than 400 long-term Australian jobs in Adelaide and Melbourne and is the largest consistent Defence export earner for Australia in dollar terms.

It currently generates up to $40 million per annum and BAE Systems has delivered in excess of over 500 production rounds.

Lockheed Martin Sippican (US) manufactures the non-explosive electronic payload. The sub-systems are assembled into decoy rounds in Australia by BAE Systems.

BAE Systems Australia will provide three years of support with an option to extend for a further three years.

Based on current indications Nulka will be in production until at least 2013. The value of Nulka contracts placed on BAE Systems to date is in excess of $500 million.

The United States and Australia will actively consider the possibility of exporting the Nulka system to countries other than Canada. Australia will await notification of the outcome of US discussions on the matter before the Defence Materiel Cooperation and Export Committee will meet to consider Australia’s position.

Contract signed: (front left to right) Dave Cornish, BAE Systems; Glenn Wahlert, DMO and Mark Delvin, DMO. (Back left to right) Jan Maher, DMO; Bill Belton, BAE Systems; Stuart McLaren, DMO; and Bob Cranage, BAE Systems.