NAVAL shipbuilding projects worth almost $90 billion have the potential to create 25,000 jobs in South Australia and increase the state’s population by up to 50,000 people, says Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.
Declaring the defence sector had the same potential to transform SA as the mining industry has Western Australia, Mr Pyne said the impact of the $50 billion future submarine project and $35 billion frigate contract would be felt for generations.
A report by professional services firm PwC released last month predicted Adelaide’s naval shipbuilding program would trigger a $134.4 billion economic bonanza for the state, including 8000 jobs — 3500 in shipbuilding and 4550 in directly related industries.
“I don’t think that the South Australian public, or the business community or the SA government has yet grasped the transformative potential of this defence industry investment,” said Mr Pyne, also the Sturt MP.
Mr Pyne predicted another 20,000 to 25,000 jobs would be created as a flow-on from the $90 billion shipbuilding program, which also includes construction at Osborne’s naval shipyard two offshore patrol vessels starting next year.
This likely would trigger an SA population increase of between 30,000 and 50,000.
“People will move here from interstate and that’s what we want. Certainly we want local jobs but actually we’re trying to build our state and stop it from disappearing off the relevance map in Australia,” Mr Pyne said.
Adelaide’s northwestern and western suburbs would be the biggest beneficiaries, with strong demand for schools and housing in areas including Largs Bay, Semaphore and Mawson Lakes.
So the opportunities for this to try to change the state are endless.
“I compare it to finding copper in Kapunda in the 1830s, which saved the-then colony, the Overland Telegraph in the 1870s, that made South Australia the granary of the British Empire and the Roxby Downs development in the 1980s. This is bigger than all of those projects in terms of its potential impact on the state,” Mr Pyne said.
About 60 per cent of the work would be in specialist trades, such as electricians and welders, offering opportunity for people transitioning from the car manufacturing industry.
Adelaide’s universities also would benefit, both because of potential for research and development but also to train workers for the projects.
“It will give young people who live in South Australia today a reason to do science, technology, engineering and maths in school and to think about careers in engineering and naval economics and mathematics and physics,” said Mr Pyne, also the federal government’s chief parliamentary tactician.
“This is the kind of industry where Australia being a high labour cost country is not a disadvantage. Labor costs mean that we can’t make T-shirts as cheaply as some countries. Labor costs are not a problem in these very hi-tech, sophisticated areas of manufacturing, because, of course, you have to have the skills to do the job.
“Every one of these submarines is like the building of a new space station. These are very complicated, highly sophisticated pieces of equipment.”
“This will attract skilled workers. It will give young people a reason to do the kind of degrees that we’ve been asking them to think about doing but not actually been able to necessarily to provide them with the jobs.
“It will stop the need to leave the state to do interesting work. Successful projects beget more successful projects.”
Singling out some companies that would benefit, Mr Pyne said Osborne-based PMB Defence (formerly Pacific Marine Batteries) had faced an uncertain future despite supplying batteries for the six Collins Class submarines. Now, he argued, it would have potential work lasting for decades.
Mr Pyne said numerous French businesses had expressed interest in establishing Adelaide operations, given French-based Naval Group was building the 12 future submarines.
At a seminar in Paris about the project this month, 120 French businesses attended from across the country, on a public holiday, to express interest.
Paul Starick, Chief Reporter
$200 billion fight for submarine docking
SOUTH Australian politicians and defence industry officials are fighting to retain Adelaide as the home of lucrative submarine maintenance and secure a multi-generational program worth up to $200 billion.
Shifting submarine full-cycle docking to Western Australia is being canvassed amid pressure from that state to compensate for SA securing the bulk of a $90 billion naval shipbuilding program.
Osborne-based ASC in 2003 secured a 25-year deal to conduct full-cycle dockings for the Collins Class submarine fleet and has won praise for developing innovative methods to reduce the boats’ time out of the water.
It since has shaved almost a year off the time taken for the extensive service, which now takes less than two years, through innovation including cutting the submarine in half to remove the main motor for external tests.
But there is speculation that WA, where the Collins fleet is based, will take over full-cycle dockings for the 12 future submarines, to be built at Osborne’s naval shipyard from the mid-2020s in a $50 billion project. It is generally accepted that lifetime submarine maintenance, or sustainment, is worth three to four times the value of construction.
The State Government’s defence strategy declares that, by 2025, South Australia should be a “national centre of complex warship and submarine build and sustainment”.
Defence industry sources said it was unlikely the Collins sustainment program would be shifted from Adelaide, unless capacity at Osborne became an issue, because it would be risky to uproot a skilled workforce given the extent of naval shipbuilding in SA. Nine future frigates also will be built at Osborne from 2020 as part of a $35 billion project.
However, operational submarine maintenance is already done at Perth’s naval base and this is likely to be expanded as the Navy becomes more efficient and innovative, by shaving processes from the full-cycle dockings.
The risk for SA is that the Navy decides it would be more convenient and efficient to conduct the full-cycle dockings in Perth too, taking away a long-term industry.
No plans to change the current sustainment regime
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne told The Advertiser there were no plans to change the current sustainment regime but stressed any decision relating to future submarine arrangements was some years ahead.
ASC chairman Bruce Carter last month told a Senate inquiry into the future of Australia’s naval shipbuilding that the government-owned firm had had “a challenging relationship with the Department of Defence since it was created” (to build six Collins Class submarines as part of a $5 billion contract signed in 1987).
“The only way we could deal with that was through performance,” Mr Carter told the inquiry.
Mr Carter sidestepped questions of whether ASC had conducted, or been requested to conduct, any work or studies in relation to shifting full-cycle dockings from SA to Western Australia, where the Collins fleet is based.
“There is work that will have been done in the organisation. I can’t tell you the details of that work,” he said.
“I would expect that that work would have been done for many years.”
However, Mr Carter said nothing had come before the board in relation to full-cycle docking.
ASC in January last year rolled out HMAS Farncomb from an Osborne maintenance shed, returning it to the water, as part of a full-cycle docking completed in less than two years. Previously, this took more than three years.
ASC interim chief executive officer Stuart Whiley, speaking when the Farncomb was rolled out from the maintenance shed, said an innovative approach to rethinking full-cycle docking had resulted in about 30 different changes to improve the process.
“The maintenance we undertake isn’t just a simple oil change and tune up — we’re effectively rebuilding the submarine,” he said.
“We invested $12.3 million to build a maintenance support tower alongside the submarine to bring the people and materials closer to the boat in order to improve efficiency.
“We’ve cut the hull of the submarine completely in half, removed the main motor and diesels, tested and refurbished them off the boat before reinstalling them and rewelding the hull.”
“We’ve built a state-of-the-art diesel generator test facility at Osborne, which has been used to test and validate the diesels off the boat, simulating real world service conditions. This has reduced the risk to schedule later in the maintenance activity and improves the reliability of the submarine delivered to the Navy.”
Paul Starick
Sky-high learning
STEM subjects have South Australian schoolkids looking to the stars — literally.
The SA Schools Space Mission is helping to get children interested in science, technology, engineering and maths.
Seven teams have been short-listed to send experiments into space on board the International Space Station, which orbits Earth. Neumann Space, an Adelaide-based company dedicated to making space travel affordable and accessible, will help them all to build a prototype.
Neumann Space has bought 125kg of payload space on the ISS, and will take the experiments up. Data will be streamed back to the schools for analysis.
The Heights School is one of those short-listed for its pitch to protect astronauts travelling to Mars from radiation. NASA, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is working on a plan to send humans to Mars. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is working on a parallel plan.
Reducing astronauts’ exposure to the elements is one of the biggest challenges.
The Heights team has proposed a specific bacteria — Deniococcus radiodurans — could act as a radiation shield.
The bacteria can repair its own genome after irradiation.
In their pitch, the students write that bacteria is light, and therefore suited to spaceflight where every bit of weight costs.
“The bacteria could be employed to protect astronauts from space radiation during the voyage from Earth to Mars and while on the surface of Mars,” they write.
This would contribute to the global goal of a better Earth by ensuring the survival of humans as we grow into a multi-planet species.
“This provides a drive for the next generations for space explorers and scientists as they strive towards more advanced technological innovations that benefit mankind.”
They argue a bacteria shield could also be used on aeroplanes, and the bacteria itself could help scientists understand more about DNA damage.
The three winners will be announced next year.
Tory Shepherd, State Editor
Skills training
THE South Australian welders of the future will learn using augmented reality simulators at an Intelligent Welder Training Facility.
The Adelaide facility will be set up by Spanish shipbuilders Navantia in a deal with TAFE SA and the Welding Technology Institute of Australia.
Navantia say the hi-tech approach will deliver “gate-ready” graduates to the defence industry.
“The success of Australia’s continuous naval shipbuilding program requires the engagement and development of a highly skilled and well-qualified workforce to maintain the highest international standards,” Navantia Australia managing director Donato Martinez said.
Navantia Australia’s parent Spanish company is competing against Italy’s Fincantieri and the UK’s BAE to build the $30 billion warships.
The bidders, as well as people involved with the $50 billion Future Submarines Project, have warned that one of the biggest challenges will be maintaining a local workforce at Osborne.
More ASC workers were laid off last week as work on the Air Warfare Destroyers finishes.
WTIA chief executive officer Geoff Crittenden said there was a current shortfall of workers.
“The success of projects like Australia’s Future Frigates relies heavily the availability of a skilled workforce,” he said.
“We’re increasingly aware of the potential shortfall of internationally recognised welders required to deliver Australia’s ambitious $90 billion shipbuilding program.”
Tory Shepherd
Turning a dragonfly into a robot
THE hunting skills of nature’s most effective predator, the dragonfly, are being harnessed in research likely to result in devices that help track and destroy hostile drones.
The tiny flying insect has a remarkable ability to target, pursue and capture its prey at speeds of up to 60km/h, even if its target tries to avoid capture by hiding in a swarm of other insects.
Joint research between Adelaide University and Sweden’s Lund University, spanning a decade, has studied the dragonfly’s brain processes and applied them to the development of a robot.
Adelaide University’s defence and security director Michael Webb said researchers were able to encode the dragonfly’s unique biological attributes into an algorithm used by the robot.
“Once the dragonfly locks on to a target, they’re gone. It’s probably nature’s most effective predator, in the sense that it generally gets its prey,” Professor Webb said.
“It can pursue things at around 60km/h. For a little thing like that, it’s really quite amazing.”
Professor David O’Carroll, of Lund University, said: “The dragonfly does something very similar to what we do when we track a ball in motion. Despite major differences in the complexity of the brain, evolution has led to the insect using its brain for advanced visual processes that are usually only considered in mammals.”
The autonomous robot uses computational models inspired by the dragonfly’s neuronal processing and is able to effectively pursue targets in unstructured environments.
This means that, unlike other robots which require predictable and stable locations to navigate successfully, the dragonfly-inspired robot can hunt in variable and unpredictable locations.
The four-wheel robot resembles a large Esky with a small barbecue-like structure affixed on top. This has a small dome atop, resembling a police light.
Professor Webb said researchers were now exploring whether the concept could be applied to identifying and tracking drones.
This could involve a wide variety of uses but, in particular, could be used to develop drones able to hunt and destroy hostile drones, which might be used by terrorists.
Asked about the potential for antimissile systems, Professor Webb said this was an unlikely application, because the issue was not so much tracking as speed of response and deployment of antimissile weapons.
A United States study released this year found the number of police, sheriff, fire and emergency agencies with drones in that country doubled last year to almost 350 departments — almost half of these in places with fewer than 50,000 people, because they are substantially cheaper than a police helicopter.
One of these is in Streetsboro, Ohio, where police have used the drone to detect a felon in a cornfield and, in June, determine which flooded areas of central Michigan needed to be evacuated.
Paul Starick
Adelaide will rock to new metal facility
THE best 3D printing facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere is headed to Adelaide.
Local companies will be able to access the metal printing facility for defence parts as well as medical devices.
The State Government has announced $1.4 million for the Northern Adelaide facility, which will house three printers.
Local companies increasingly have the ability to 3D print parts, but buying a printer is prohibitively expensive. This shared facility will solve that problem.
David Chuter, the managing director and chief executive officer of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre, told The Advertiser the “critical mass” of advanced manufacturing will be in the defence and medical industries.
“The words ‘manufacturing’ and ‘investment’ have struggled to go together in Adelaide,” he said.
But this is an investment in new technologies, in advanced manufacturing technologies ... it could see the industry engaged in making prototypes, in research.
Mr Chuter said particularly in defence the facility would allow people to make things differently, make new products, create new business models and “potentially a new industry”.
Manufacturing and Innovation Minister Kyam Maher said transforming the state economy depended on our ability to “adapt to new ways of doing things and establish advanced technologies to build globally competitive, high-value firms”.
“We value innovation and we know it drives economic growth and job creation, so this investment is key to creating the jobs of today and the jobs of the future,” he said.
Until now, some people have been able to access the University of Adelaide’s smaller facility, but have had to go overseas for bigger jobs.
University Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor Julie Owens said this would allow advanced manufacturing projects to happen in Adelaide
“The new facility will enable many advanced manufacturing projects in defence, medical devices, dental prostheses and injection moulding to be undertaken in Adelaide,” she said.
“This will significantly enhance local advanced manufacturing and we are proud to have been centrally involved in the creation of such an important new facility for SA.”
Metal 3D printing is also known as metal additive manufacturing. The process means complicated parts can be made at a high quality.
CSIRO Deputy Director of Manufacturing Cathy Foley said access to the facility would create jobs.
“Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, creates enormous opportunities for innovative products to be developed, creating new business models and jobs growth in Australia,” she said.
“In addition to improving lives with next generation medical implants, the success of CSIRO’s Lab 22 (an existing 3D metal printing) has shown that making metal additive manufacturing more accessible for industry provides them with the tools to differentiate themselves, grow and get ahead of global competitors.”
Tory Shepherd
SMART SA SPECIAL REPORTS
#1: The visitor economy: Bringing SA to the world
#2: Defence: The $90bn boost that will transform SA
#3: Innovation: Tonsley, a playground for creative thinkers
#4: Agriculture/aquaculture: DNA tracking protects our produce
#5: Health: Game-changing research into serious diseases
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