Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, , 49:49 to 53:16
Questioning focuses on the decision to de-prioritize new deployable hangers and air traffic control facilities in favor of other strategic goals.
Topics: National security, Infrastructure
Speakers: Robert Chipman, James Paterson
in these new capabilities that are now not preceding the deployable hangers and the deployable air traffic control. Um, VCDF, isn't it the case that uh many of the bases to which these capabilities would be deployed are our bare bases in the north and northwest of Australia that don't either have hangers or air traffic control.
uh the deployable facilities, the deployable hanger w was more focused on lessons that we had learned from our deployments over many years into the Middle East where we had maintainers operating on tarmac with temperatures exceeding 70° and and therefore our ability to sustain our aircraft in that environment was not very productive. It meant that we had to have particular PPE, coolant vests, they could only work for limited periods, we had to do maintenance activities at nighttime. So that the motivation behind a deployable hanger was more to make sure that when we're operating in those extreme heat environments that we're able to sustain our aircraft productively.
>> So do bases like Lemonth and Curtain and SHA have hangers?
>> Uh they certainly do have carport facilities. Yes.
>> And adequate if we had to deploy you know a large number of uh airframes
>> Yes, Senator.
>> Okay. What about um the air traffic
systems? So all of them we we currently do have deployable air traffic control systems in inventory today. This was a decision not to to further those investments.
>> Right. So we will continue to have deployable air traffic systems.
>> That's correct, Senator.
>> Why are we going to buy new ones then?
>> Well, our judgment is not that we don't need new capabilities. Our judgment is that these capabilities that we had planned to acquire in the 2024 integrated investment program are no longer a a priority in comparison to all the other things that we're seeking. We're not saying that they're not useful. We're not saying that there's not a need for them. We're saying that they're now in our judgment a lower priority to get after the specific task the government has set for us through the national defense strategy. So is it
your evidence that um we will have an ongoing deployable air traffic control capability?
>> Yes, Senator.
>> Right. What was the advantage about the new air traffic deployable capability that we now will not have?
>> I I don't have that specific detail with me, Senator. I'll have to come back to you.
>> Well, you just gave me evidence that you were confident that this was not going to be a problem because we have this other capability, but you can't actually tell me what the difference between the
two of them is. Well, I can tell you that through our assessments, our our judgment is that these additional investments were not a high enough priority to be funded.
>> I understand that, but I was starting to be reassured that this was not going to be a meaningful problem because we have this other capability, but you're now telling me you can't you don't know what the difference between them is.
What I'm telling you, Senator, is that we assess that that we have sufficient capability to be able to operate our aircraft from our deployed facility to to operate them from austere environments.
>> But but obviously a decision was made at some point that we needed to upgrade or extend or expand the deployable air traffic control capability. Obviously, it had some virtues otherwise it wouldn't have been put in the IIP in the first place. But you don't know what they are and you don't know what the deficiencies might be now that we have to continue with the old system
>> to to the specific elements and advantages of the discrete capabilities that we have chosen not to invest in. I can come back to you on notice, Senator.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um is it also the case that changes have been made to acquiring