DMO Bulletin For Industry - Department of Defence

DMO CAPABILITy
An Australian CH-47 D Chinook hovers and waits for clearance to take off at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.
project schedule, from initial
planning and project approvals
right through to delivery of
capability,” he said.
“We continuously engaged
with the many players involved
in the process to ensure they
were aware of our schedule
requirements and worked with us
to meet our deadlines.”
Working through the Christmas
stand down period, the project
team successfully accepted
the aircraft from the US Army in
Germany in January 2012. The
project team then collaborated
with ADF contractors, US
Government officials and local
German authorities to transport
the Chinooks (by road) to a US
Air Force base in Germany. From
there, they were relocated to
Australia via two separate C-17
strategic airlift operations.
On arrival in Townsville, the
aircraft underwent deeper
maintenance and modification to
match the configuration of the
rest of the ADF’s Chinook fleet.
This maintenance, rectification and
modification program was extensive
and required significant effort and
coordination between engineering
and logistics staff and our industry
partners, BAE Systems and
Columbia Helicopters Inc.
Initial ground flight tests of the
Chinooks are now underway and the
project is on track to deliver Initial
Operational Capability by mid-2012.
The aircraft will undergo a second
modification program in early 2013 to
become fully deployable, paving the
way for Final Operational Capability
to be achieved by mid 2013.
LTCOL de Boer said lessons learnt
during this acquisition process will be
very useful for later AIR 9000 phases.
“The planning, cooperation, flexibility
and coordination within the project
team and across Defence were
critical factors in this success,
combined with the effective use
of contracted support throughout
the project.”
“In essence this project has been a
dress rehearsal for when we replace
the existing ADF fleet with the
modernised variant of the Chinook
(CH-47F) in 2014-16 under AIR 9000
Phase 5C.”
Air 9000 Phase 5D has reinforced the
need for the DMO to play a greater
role in the FMS process. It’s also
shown the value of having ‘boots on
the ground’ representing the ADF’s
interests.
This acquisition success story is the
result of thorough cooperation and
holds great lessons for all of us as
we strive to rapidly respond to the
ADF’s changing needs.
About AIR9000 Phase 5D
The additional Chinooks
acquired under Air 9000 5D
take the ADF’s fleet to seven.
This will reduce the pressure
on the Chinook’s training
and maintenance schedule,
resulting in enhanced support
of the Chinooks currently
deployed in Afghanistan on
Operation SLIPPER.
DMO Bulletin Issue 2 2012 | 12