PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA
The Royal Australian Air Force is to upgrade its 1960s aerospace command and reporting system because a replacement, to be developed by Boeing Australia, is now not expected to become operational before late 2007.
This represents a slide of another two years on previously revised schedules for the programme, known as Project Vigilare, for which the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) is still to finalise who will win the deal.
The DoD was advising throughout last year that the replacement would be in service by 2003 with a contract award to Boeing due before the end of last October. This was later revised to a 2005 in-service target with a contract by December. Negotiations with Boeing were suspended, however, in November.
Australian Defence Materiel Organisation sources suggest that cost pressures on the defence budget, which is facing a A$400 million ($208 million) overspend, may have been a key factor in the suspension of negotiations.
The DoD is now advising that "pre-contract negotiations and risk reduction activities continue" for the replacement. But no timeframes for contract finalisation have been released.
Boeing was selected as preferred supplier in September 1998. The system was to have entered service by the end of last year, with initial delays in finalising a contract caused by pressure from Boeing for the new air defence ground system to be linked to the contract for the Royal Australian Air Force's Boeing Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft.
Source: Flight International
