Australia Drops Global Hawk Plans
Mar 2, 2009
| By Bradley Perrett |
 Australia has dropped plans to buy the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk for maritime surveillance, citing program delays that would have created a workload clash with the proposed introduction of Boeing P-8 Poseidons mid next decade. The Australian defense force does not have the resources to introduce both aircraft at once, and so it has chosen the indispensable manned surveillance aircraft over the unmanned one. The decision means that Australia will cease to be a partner in the U.S. Navy program for deploying the Global Hawk in the maritime role, a program called the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS). The move also suggests an increasingly cautious approach to program management by a defense force that has suffered from unusually serious project foul-ups over the past decade. “The delivery schedule for the United States Navy’s BAMS program has slipped and resulted in the earliest possible in-service date for the BAMS aircraft moving out to 2015,” says Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. “Introducing such an advanced new aircraft at this time would have caused incredible workforce pressures on the Australian Defense Force, particularly given the requirement to transition the Air Force’s AP-3C Orion fleet to a new manned surveillance aircraft [the Boeing P-8 Poseidon] in the same time period,” the minister says. Australia isn’t ruling out deploying the drones for maritime surveillance in the future, and will monitor progress BAMS and similar programs. In announcing the decision Australia stresses that it has no doubts about the viability of BAMS. “The Australian government has every confidence that the United States Navy BAMS program will deliver a very capable, uninhabited aircraft. However, at this stage in the development of this project, it is in Australia’s best interests to not knowingly risk incurring the unmanageable workforce chaos that would result.” Australia has chosen the Poseidon to replace its updated Lockheed Martin P-3C Orions. Photo: Northrop Grumman
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