The Navantia Australia SAGE Automation Group joint venture company, NSAG, was officially launched on 6th. October at the Pacific 2015 International Maritime Exhibition in Sydney.
Building upon the successful delivery of Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) services for two of the Australian Navy’s most ambitious shipbuilding projects, the Landing Helicopter Deck (LHD) and Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) programs, NSAG has been formed to further develop and deliver IPMS solutions for the Australian Defence Industry.
The Navantia exhibition stand at Pacific 2015 played host to invited guests from across Australia for the launch, who were welcomed by the Minister for Defence Industry’s Parliamentary Secretary Leesa Vlahos.
Navantia Australia President, Paco Baron, said the joint venture demonstrates a firm commitment by both organisations to the Australian Navy, “Local capability is critical for the Australian Navy and this joint venture positions us perfectly to deliver a full suite of IPMS services, by Australians, in Australia.”
Baron also spoke of the benefits of IPMS platform consistency across the Australian Naval fleet, “The IPMS is a sophisticated, available and reliable platform. When implemented across the fleet, will see the RAN realise cost savings in the purchase, installation and maintenance of IPMS platforms and benefit from an ongoing improvement programming and dynamic on-board and on-shore simulated training program.”
SAGE Automation CEO Adrian Fahey, described the partnership, established working on the LHD and AWD programs, “We have a track record of working seamlessly together over the past 5 years, and certainly share alignment in our commitment to the Defence Industry now and for the longer term.”
Fahey went on to describe the importance of the work for Australian industry, “The work completed on the LHD and AWD projects to date, demonstrates that we have the Advanced Manufacturing skills and capability to deliver world class projects right here in Australia.”
Fahey introduced newly appointed General Manager of NSAG, Paul Johnson, who described the vision for NSAG, “Our vision is clear, to continue to deliver, support and develop a sophisticated, robust and progressive IPMS infrastructure for the Australian Navy”.
NSAG has capability to locally deliver end to end IPMS solutions for future projects including ANZAC, SEA5000, SEA1654 and AOR NZ. “The existing relationship has employed over 50 Australians directly in the past 5 years. Our goal is to secure further works and build upon this number.” said Johnson.
Johnson went on to explain some of the benefit of the IPMS “This IPMS is based on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware, which just makes sense for the Australian Navy. It is a platform that can be fully supported through-life right here in Australia and that will benefit from an ongoing development program from one of the worlds most respected shipbuilders.”
