Australia announced on 9 September that it was investing A$2.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) into Tranche 2B of Project Air 6500, also known as the Joint Air Battle Management System. JABMS is designed to fuse data and capabilities into a single battlespace overview to aid commanders in their decision-making.
This investment will be spread over a six-year period, with Lockheed Martin Australia responsible for the bulk of the work. For its role, the company was awarded an A$1.32 billion contract for Tranche 2B.
Air 6500 is a foundational part of Australia’s nascent integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) system, of which the government has promised to spend A$30 billion over the coming decade.
The Department of Defence said Air 6500 will now “replace the existing system and modernise air surveillance and aircraft control functions, while supporting the coordination of defence operations in Australia and overseas”.
For its part, Lockheed Martin Australia said in its press release that, under Tranche 2B, it would “enhance Air 6500’s core architecture with advanced command-and-control (C2) aids, expanded comms and cybersecurity to maintain resilient, networked sensor and C2 capabilities that can sense and track incoming threats and integrate with the Australian Defence Force’s targeting enterprise, allies and partners”.
It added, “This framework establishes a scalable path for ongoing systems innovation and rapid integration of future technologies, keeping Australia ahead of emerging threats.”
Under a previous Tranche 2A contract covering the past two years, Lockheed Martin Australia produced the JABMS prototype, two joint tactical operations centres and a single persistent operations node, for testing and evaluation. It also trained Royal Australian Air Force personnel on it, and completed the fit-out of an Air 6500 integration lab in Adelaide.
Concerning the new contract, Defence’s press release stated, “This will strengthen Australia’s ability to operate as an integrated force and detect, track and respond to increasingly sophisticated air and missile threats.”
However, the sticking point is that Australian air defences are very thin on the ground. As Dr. Malcom Davis, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, remarked, “All good moves here, but having JABMS with nothing to shoot means we still don’t have IAMD at a time of rapidly growing threats that are short term – not a decade out.”
Davis pointed out that the nation’s current arsenal of SM-6 missiles on three Hobart-class destroyers, as well as short-range NASAMS, does not cut the mustard against the threat posed by Chinese intermediate-range ballistic missiles like the DF-26, and hypersonic glide weapons such as the DF-27.
Davis warned: “There needs to be urgent investment into land-based medium- and intermediate-range interceptor missile systems. The challenge of course in doing so is that the US has heavily depleted its own stockpile and will take years to rebuild. We’re at the back of a very long queue.”
This new Air 6500 contract will see Lockheed Martin Australia’s workforce grow from 360 employees to more than 400 within 18 months.
Incidentally, the company has invested A$85.9 million of its own money in what it calls an Air Power Precinct in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Due to be operational by 2028, this facility will support end-to-end resilience for IAMD and JABMS.
Stephanie C. Hill, Lockheed Martin’s President of Rotary and Mission Systems, said, “As the strategic partner for Air 6500, Lockheed Martin is proud to continue working with the Department of Defence to rapidly evolve an advanced integrated air and missile defence system that safeguards the Indo-Pacific region. Together, we’re maturing a significant capability that strengthens Australia’s national security and increases allied interoperability to combat future threats.”
This was also doubtlessly an allusion to the ground-based test of an SM-2 missile in June. Employing the Aegis combat system, a CEA Technologies radar and Lockheed Martin Derringer launcher, this hybrid represented a prototypical medium-range air defence system that could present an option for Australia in the future.
by Gordon Arthur
