Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA

Australia's Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN)will begin tracking tests in September with the first array, at Longreach in western Queensland, undergoing integration testing.

Air Cdre Dick Hedges, director of strategic high-frequency projects within the Defence Acquisition Organisation, says the trials will focus on tracking civil aircraft.

Hedges has also publicly confirmed that the A$1.8 billion ($1.2 billion) radar has been optimised for air search. "This system is optimised for air target detection. It can pick up surface targets, but it is an area of relatively immature research," he says.

During the tests, Longreach will monitor a footprint reaching more than 3,000km (1,600nm), covering virtually all of Indonesia's western provinces and most of Papua New Guinea. The test tracking will be monitored at Longreach via a standalone air defence command centre at the antenna site.

Trial planning comes as the Australian Department of Defence (DoD)prepares to transfer in October the JORN development prime contract from the partially privatised Telstra to RLM Systems.

RLM, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Tenix Defence Systems, took over project management responsibilities from Telstra in early 1997. Telstra is understood to have paid RLM more than A$600 million to return the project to schedule. The original contract with Telstra was for operational system delivery by mid-1997.

In February, RLM took over software development activities from Marconi Electronic Systems in a deal under which the UK company will forego more than A$75 million for work undertaken.

The transfer is expected to see the DoD exempt RLM from payment of liquidated damages for delays in exchange for the provision of an interim operational capability ahead of schedule. JORN is scheduled for final delivery at the end of 2001, although Hedges says this is expected to slip to mid-2002. Hedges warns that "the integration and test phases of this project may be difficult and may expose some new problems".

The radar network, comprising two transmission and receive sites, at Longreach and at Laverton in Western Australia, and a command and co-ordination centre at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia, is 78% complete, says Hedges.

Source: Flight International