'Cancerous' morale risks our navy fleet

THE navy is facing a critical shortage of engineers to maintain and run its fleet, raising grave doubts about its ability to operate its new fleet.

Landing helicopter dock

THE navy is facing a critical shortage of engineers to maintain and run its fleet, raising grave doubts about its ability to operate more than $50 billion worth of new ships and submarines due to be delivered over the next decade.

An internal navy report obtained by The Weekend Australian has delivered a scathing assessment of naval engineering, which it says has reached a critical low point and is rocked by "cancerous" morale problems, a massive shortfall in numbers and a broken management system.

"The current situation has an urgency and a criticality that cannot be overstated," says the November 2009 Report on the Strategic Review of Naval Engineering. "Navy is potentially exposed due to the poor state of engineering policy should there be further accidents."

Despite the strong language and damning findings, the report was not sent to the Defence Minister at the time.

The report's revelations come in the wake of current Defence Minister Stephen Smith's angry rebuke to the navy this week for the mismanagement of its amphibious fleet, which meant none of its three largest ships was seaworthy to help in the aftermath of Queensland's Cyclone Yasi.

The troubled fleet will be replaced in three years by two new helicopter landing dock ships. The hull of the first new boat was launched in Spain yesterday.

The Australian revealed last week that two-thirds of the navy's fleet were unable to operate at full capacity at some stage in the first half of last year because of repairs, maintenance, crew shortages or operational restrictions.

The navy's engineering report has alarmed the top brass because engineers play such a pivotal role in maintaining and running the fleet. It says the navy has failed to upgrade the skills of its engineers to prepare them "to manage the challenges of new capabilities such as air warfare destroyers, landing helicopter dock ships and new submarines".

As a result, there is a "grave" morale problem among engineers. "The negative attitude of some sailors is cancerous and can quickly pervade large sectors of the fleet support unit, souring many junior sailors even before their first sea-going experience."

The report makes a range of recommendations but says more money and more personnel are needed urgently. It traces the current crisis to multiple reform, efficiency and cost-saving initiatives over the past two decades, which it says have fragmented, diluted and strained the navy's resources.

Much of the report focuses on personnel, skills and training, noting that the navy's need for engineering knowledge and experience has never been greater but that the current status is cause for "grave concern".

The review was commissioned by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Russ Crane, and chaired by retired Air Vice Marshall Julie Hammer, a former president of Engineers Australia, who told The Weekend Australian her work ended when she handed the report to the Chief of Navy more than a year ago.

The navy has initiated a "remediation plan" and this week Mr Smith also appointed businessman Paul Rizzo to head a team of experts to improve the management and repair of naval ships.

In a speech to the defence industry, Mr Smith said maintenance should be "bread and butter business" for Defence and stressed that "the seeds of the problems we now face were sown more than a decade ago".

The engineering report gives voice to concerns about a lack of corporate management that some Defence insiders have complained of privately for many years. It identifies "serious problems" in career management, saying navy personnel need to have higher qualifications.

Describing the technical sailor community as "in crisis", the review outlines a lack of training and "meaningful work" for sailors when they are not at sea.

Simply put, it points out that hundreds of technical sailors attached to fleet support units such as Garden Island in Sydney are sitting idle, underworked and under-trained, even while the navy is struggling to keep ships in service.

The report recommends ensuring these technical sailors are put to sea more often and given more useful shore-based work.

It also recommends greater recognition and promotion for engineering professionals, who are often overlooked in favour of sea command personnel.

At the same time, it notes that civilian engineering and technical officers working within the navy have been reduced in number from "many hundreds in the 1980s to a fraction of that number today".

The report recommends urgent action to recognise the problem and provide more people and more money.

"Navy is fundamentally a technological service," it says. "Its war-fighting ability is critically dependent on the engineering design of its platforms and systems and the state of serviceability in which they are maintained."

The report was completed in late 2009 but not sent to then defence minister John Faulkner. Mr Smith, who became Defence Minister last September, was briefed on its findings this year and a spokesman for him says the Chief of Navy has accepted 73 of the report's 76 recommendations.

Defence associate at the Lowy Institute James Brown said last night the report was further evidence of the size of the problems facing the navy.

"This is a navy that is tactically excellent but technically bankrupt,' he said.

"We are probably past working out who is to blame and we need to now work out how to fix it."

Additional reporting: Cameron Stewart