By Graham Davis
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DCN,
RADM Moffitt and Dr Nandagopal unveil the MOAC plaque on
Garden Island.
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Photo:
ABPH Bill Louys
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It
is called MOAC, the Maritime Operations Analysis Centre, and from
here on it will help to improve the way the Royal Australian Navy
operates.
It will help those planning the operations or exercises to get
it right, and then measure the success of the operation or exercise.
It will help Defence planners by identifying shortfalls in equipment
and capability
as well as helping ship’s commanders before they deploy and
when they are deployed.
Made up of a staff of seven RAN and DSTO personnel, MOAC, was
officially opened by the Deputy Chief of Navy, RADM Rowan Moffitt,
and Dr Nanda Nandagopal the Director Systems Sciences Laboratory,
DSTO at a ceremony on Garden Island.
A crowd of about 50 attended the ceremony, including the Navy
Systems Commander, CDRE Russ Crane COMFLOT, CDRE Matt Tripovich
and the head of RANTEAA, CAPT Daryl Bates.
As RADM Moffitt said when officially opening the centre, its role
will be to “measure, analyse and then articulate” Maritime
capability, while going on to say the MOAC was a “vitally
important capability into the future.”
MOAC’s job is to measure the capability of ships, submarines
and aircraft, collate it and then identify shortfalls, be they
training, tactics, or equipment, and then determine if the asset
could have been employed more effectively, or if there could have
been an improvement in asset employment.
Should a number of assets be involved in an operation, or exercise,
the amount of information coming in expands and the parameters
widen.
MOAC’s first major deployment has just concluded.
The seven existing members, boosted by six others from RAU and
Tactical Development Group, had just returned from Western Australia
where they had analysed an Anti-Submarine Warfare Exercise held
off the WA coast (ASWEX 03).
The MOAC had to collect and collate information from seven surface
ships, several SH 70 Seahawk and MPA aircraft and a submarine.
