Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Mike Kelly today provided a capability update on two projects.
Joint Project 2044 Phase 4A – Digital Topographic Systems
Minister Smith and Minister Kelly announced that the Government has provided Combined Pass approval for Joint Project 2044 Phase 4A to upgrade and enhance the Defence’s digital topographical systems to strengthen interoperability with our allies and deliver enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) is a critical input to a wide range of Australian Defence Force activities including precision strike, force manoeuvrability, intelligence and navigation.
GEOINT is also a core source of information on global issues such as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. GEOINT supports the activities of other Government organisations, and supports special event management and crisis response activities of National and State security authorities.
Joint Project 2044 is a multi-phased project designed to develop and sustain a Defence capability to exploit GEOINT data gathered from multiple sources including space-based surveillance.
Phase 4A will commence the implementation of a modernised architecture for the Australian GEOINT system. This will include the strengthening of the systems for GEOINT interoperability with our allies, upgrade of Defence’s geospatial data and image repositories, enhancement of the capabilities for the exploitation of geospatial data from an increasing variety of sources and improvement of the availability of GEOINT to Defence.
The Government has approved around $90 million for this activity, with around an additional $20 million subject to further consideration. The capability will commence operations from mid 2014.
The outcomes of this phase will provide the foundation for Phase 4B and subsequent phases to further develop the overall Australian and allied Geospatial Intelligence System’s architecture and to host the expanded range of production and dissemination services.
Other phases of Joint Project 2044 include: Phase 2A (complete) which delivered system updates and conducted risk reduction activities in preparation for the main acquisition phase; and Phase 2B (complete) which acquired Information Technology (IT), communications and training infrastructure to support a space-based surveillance capability.
The primary opportunities for Australian industry will be in areas of supply and installation of commercial off the shelf hardware and software, provision of specialist personnel to assist with system delivery, and ongoing system support.
Joint Project 2080 Phase 2B.1 – Defence Personnel Systems Modernisation
Minister Smith and Minister Kelly also announced that the Government has provided approval for the Department of Defence to proceed with the First Release build of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Payroll component for Joint Project 2080 Phase 2B.1 – Personnel Systems Modernisation.
Funding of around $90 million has been approved for this activity.
The Personnel Systems Modernisation project is a significant Defence information and communications technology project that brings together a range of human resource management reforms and activities, including major reforms in key business areas such as personnel administration, career management, education and training, workforce planning and enterprise reporting.
The Project is a key component of long term human resources management reform within Defence.
The First Release will integrate the ADF payroll capability into Defence’s current core personnel management system which is used to pay Defence civilian employees and ADF Reservists. The outcome will provide a single, unified payroll system for the entire Australian Defence Organisation.
The First Release will improve Defence’s ability to ensure the correct and timely payment of the military and civilian workforce and will deliver efficiencies from having a single integrated payroll system.
The First Release build will be operational from early 2015.
The First Release also establishes the framework for follow-on releases of the Personnel Systems Modernisation project which will integrate the human resources management system within Defence into a single unified and modern Commercial of the Shelf based system.
Defence will return to Government in Financial Year 2013-14 for approval for follow-on releases.
