As sophisticated Australian Army equipment becomes concentrated at Townsville, it’s time for the Department of Defence to shift management offices for those systems to the city.
In doing so, it would be simply applying the proven arrangements it has long used for Royal Australian Air Force aircraft: putting the systems program offices (SPOs) with the equipment they manage. It’s an arrangement that suits equipment that is complex and subject to high security levels—as army helicopters and armour at Townsville will be.
Most of the army’s equipment has formerly been spread across the country, with tanks, trucks, cannons, radios, rifles and other items issued to units from Adelaide to Perth to Townsville and everywhere in between. Since most equipment types have had no dominant location, the department has traditionally put the army’s sustainment oversight offices—the SPOs—in Melbourne and Canberra.
The air force, on the other hand, has had a simple model of putting SPOs close to the equipment they support. Engineering and sustainment of the F/A-18F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers are at RAAF Amberley in Queensland, where those aircraft are. C-17s are at that base, too, and so is their Heavy Air Lift SPO. The Air Lift SPO supports C-130 aircraft at their base, RAAF Richmond in New South Wales. Arrangements for other aircraft types are similar.
This approach arises from the geographical concentration of each type. It brings the advantage that those responsible for sustaining a system can become more familiar with it, and corporate knowledge gleaned through decades of experience is often retained locally as service personnel transition to civilian service and continue to work in the relevant office. This is all the more important when the equipment is unusually complex, as aircraft are.
The army has said it will base most of its helicopters—including all CH-47F Chinooks and AH-64E Apaches—in Townsville. This concentration resembles the RAAF’s model of centralising aircraft of any particular type. Yet the department’s Capability and Sustainment Group (CASG), which runs equipment acquisition and sustainment, plans to put army aviation SPOs in Brisbane. This decision is difficult to understand: there will be no aircraft in Brisbane.
It becomes yet harder to understand when it is remembered that much of AH-64E’s technology is highly classified, so support personnel will need access to compartmented information. The taxpayer will wonder why we need facilities for accessing and storing this information in two places when the air force, with far greater experience on comparably complex aircraft than the army, shows that the SPOs can be with the equipment.
The army’s new and forthcoming armoured vehicles are highly technical; their sustainment will demand deeper understanding than has been necessary in the past. The new vehicles are a step change in technology for the army. The new M1A2 tank is a far cry from the M1A1, and to compare the Redback infantry fighting vehicle to the M113 armoured personnel carrier, which it will replace, would be like comparing an F1 racing car to a 1970s sedan. The Redbacks represent a once-in-two-generations investment in the army’s protected lethality and deserve sustainment support that recognises this investment.
Given that most of the armoured vehicles will be in Townsville, having their SPO there again makes sense.
Local SPOs make even more sense when we consider the lifecycle of both the equipment and the careers of people who operate and maintain it. During uniformed service, people become experts in maintaining and operating technical systems. They acquire the qualifications needed to reliably sustain them and the depth of understanding needed for anticipating problems and develop workable, efficient solutions.
Family stability is a key factor when skilled service members choose a location for putting down roots. Providing that stability while retaining highly specialised skills is a double win for Defence. It can do so by putting SPOs with equipment. A defence force technician who moves from an operational unit to a supporting role in an SPO would not need to move to a new city.
Townsville, the largest city in northern Australia, has the capacity and capability to support these SPOs. With a local university, strong veteran workforce, advanced manufacturing and simulation businesses, and highly effective logistics, it is ready, willing and, most importantly, able to support CASG and the capabilities it sustains.
