ENGINEERING - Royal Australian Navy

2 N A VY EN G I N E E R I N G B U L L ET IN F E B RU A RY 20 0 2
BY RADM GEOFF SMITH,
AO, RAN, MARITIME
COMMANDER, AUSTRALIA
Foreword
In February 2001, a number of our ships and a submarine were
scheduled to participate in EX TASMANEX with units from the New
Zealand Navy. Our performance in that exercise was significantly
degraded due a significant number of engineering casualties that
occurred before and after the exercise commenced.
In fact, serious problems with the
fuel pumps on HMAS SUCCESS
meant that she had to be
w i th d raw n from the exercise
before leaving Sydney. This
situation caused me considerable
chagrin. I could handle the
inevitable jibes of the Kiwis, but
I was very concerned about the
reliability of the Fleet. I shared
for these unforseen events, a
large number of changes were
made in a very short time; some
large, some small, but almost all
involved engineering effort.
I am very pleased to report that
as the operational tempo has
increased, the Fleet engineering
reliability has been very good.
. . . the whole Navy moved
from an exercise mentality to
a fully operational mode, due
to the ‘unauthorised boat
arrivals’ in the north and our
government’s response to the
‘war against terrorism’.
beyond the capacity of uniformed
people. The engineers in FIMA
continue to provide consistent
high quality support to the Fleet
and have deployed in support
of operations in KANIMBL A
and MANOORA.
The year 2001 reconfirmed in
my mind ‘that engineers make it
happen’ and I want you to know
that your efforts have been
appreciated. I commend the
“Naval Engineering Bulletin” to
you. I trust that the knowledge
and wisdom herein is used to
ensure that the Fleet is kept
ready to fight and win at any time.
Yours sincerely,
my concerns with the Chief Staff
Officer Engineering and the Force
Element Group Commanders.
The result was that a number
of key engineering problems in
several FEGs were identified and
prioritised. The engineers (and
people of other specialisations)
w i thin the Maritime Headqu a rte rs ,
the Force Element Groups and
the DMO, set about solving them
to improve the reliability of our
platforms. The second thing that
occurred was that the whole Navy
moved from an exercise mentality
to a fully operational mode, due
to the ‘unauthorised boat ar rivals’
in the north and our gove rn m e n t ’ s
response to the ‘war against
terrorism’. In preparing our ships
A major contributing factor has
been the energy and effort
expended by engineers and
technicians across the Navy.
Marine and electronics
technicians at sea have kept
watches, done the maintenance,
monitored systems, fixed defects
and kept the machinery and
weapons at a high s tate of
readiness for long periods of time.
Fleet engineering staff have
c o n d u c ted wo rkups and eva l u a t i o n s
tirelessly and offered support and
assistance when and where
required. DMO and SYSCOM
engineers have provided the
wherewithal to modify the ships
and managed the contractors to
do the maintenance that was
G.F. SMITH AO
Rear Admiral RAN
Maritime Commander Australia