David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Defence upon notice, on 21 March 2011:

Given that video communications are integrated into robots, soldiers and unmanned aerial vehicles, network centric warfare is becoming the organising principle of war fighting, and frontline demands for bandwidth are rising at a rapid rate, for the period 1 July to 31 December 2010, what did the Australian Defence Force do and how much did it spend on:

(a) establishing a network centric warfare capability; and

(b) addressing the issue of increased bandwidth.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(a)The Australian Defence Force's (ADF) network centric warfare capability is being delivered primarily through the Defence Capability Plan (DCP). Defence was engaged in the following network centric warfare activities from 1 July to 31 December 2010:

(i) Over the period there have been a number of developments supporting network centric warfare milestones in the Network Centric Warfare Roadmap 2009:

(ii) Defence has facilitated nine Defence and industry activities to increase networked capability. $9.876 million has been directly attributed to developing and implementing network centric warfare. Expenditure on projects within the DCP is not included in the summation of expenditure attributed to the establishment of a networked ADF capability.

(b)   The requirement to meet frontline demands for increased bandwidth is being addressed through various projects to acquire satellite capabilities and enhanced tactical networks, including data link communications for ADF elements and weapon systems. On the specific matter of increasing bandwidth, Defence was engaged in the following activities from 1 July to 31 December 2010:

(i)   The ADF's information exchange requirements are routinely assessed using the Defence Science and Technology Organisation to model, run and assess results. This modelling provides a good degree of fidelity as to the ADF's bandwidth requirements. The issue is not necessarily one of increasing bandwidth, but increasing the data rate. New technologies and improved information management practices are enabling better use of existing bandwidth. Network optimisation technology was introduced on some strategic communications links into the Middle East Area of Operations, resulting in significant data throughput improvements of up to three times the previous rate. A more expanded use of this technology is being examined.

(ii)   Defence continued milestone payments ($40.88 million) for the sixth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite.

(iii)   Defence continued the development of a long term satellite ground station capability on the Australian west coast ($15.64 million).

(iv)   Defence continued the acquisition ($87.94 million) of an ultra high frequency payload on the IS-22 commercial satellite over the Indian Ocean region, which will become operational in 2012.

(v)   Defence continued to utilise increased wide band satellite communications bandwidth to support major fleet units.

(vi)   Defence increased its utilisation of commercial bearers (e.g. Telstra Next G) for minor war vessels when operating in vicinity of the Australian coastline, increasing from nine to 15 minor war vessels. This has saved approximately $2.3 million per year in leased commercial satellite costs. The Specialist Communications Modernisation Program - Maritime will enable Navy to more widely implement this capability across an additional 20 platforms which will realise significant additional savings.

(vii)   Navy sponsored the Defence Science and Technology Organisation research to identify and trial alternate high bandwidth communications bearers so as to conduct communications outside the current radio frequencies.

(viii)   Navy achieved enhanced situational awareness and threat warning through the installation of capabilities delivered through Joint Project 2065 Phase One, which enables the delivery of intelligence information via both networked and through air bearers.