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LPA Kanimbla - Schedule

Forgacs Dockyard was contracted to undertake a modest capability upgrade package, a limited refit of one ship with the prospect of the refit work being expanded later as the need arose. Forgacs Dockyard, along with Defence had little comprehension of the ultimate scope of the refit package, which has grown enormously. The task has been made more complex by the sequential manner in which the work packages, both for the modification and the refit, have been scoped, released and approved by Defence. These factors, in combination, have been a significant contributor to schedule delay. This is in addition to delays which resulted from the major change of scope to the modification package mid stream.

At the time of Project Approval, it was planned that the ships would be delivered to the RAN after modification and refit in June and July 1996. HMAS MANOORA was delivered to the RAN in November 1999 and it is planned that HMAS KANIMBLA will be delivered in August 2000. This represents a slippage on original estimates of 40 months for HMAS MANOORA and 50 months for HMAS KANIMBLA.

The contract for modification and repair and refit of the LPAs was let to Forgacs Dockyard in Newcastle in May 1996, a nine month slippage from the planned contract date of August 1995. At that stage the contracted delivery date for both LPAs was September 1997. Given the current delivery schedule, slippage against the original contract is 26 months for HMAS MANOORA and 35 months for HMAS KANIMBLA.

The bulk of this slippage is attributable to:

• lack of a defined baseline for the development of refit packages;
• the need for unanticipated remedial work;
• several increases to levels of ship capability;
• the need for parallel design and construction due to incomplete operational requirements documents;
• delays in funding approvals; and
• general growth in ship upgrade requirements

Much of the dockyard effort was directed towards work on HMAS MANOORA, and since July 1999 had been almost exclusively on HMAS MANOORA, to meet the November 1999 delivery date. During that time, HMAS KANIMBLA has been used to supply parts for HMAS MANOORA in the effort to get HMAS MANOORA to sea as quickly as possible. Part of the tasks faced in completing work on HMAS KANIMBLA are the making good of those borrowed items and the allocation of sufficient dockyard resources (given that HMAS MANOORA was undergoing trials which in themselves require dockyard help).

HMAS MANOORA was handed over by the dockyard, provisionally accepted by the RAN and has put to sea within a matter of weeks. With a relatively inexperienced crew aboard, unfamiliar machinery and systems that have just undergone extensive repair and modification, this action may be regarded as carrying a degree of risk. Since sailing on 1 December 1999, HMAS MANOORA had major problems with two of her diesel generators and also a problem with a turning gear motor.

It had been planned to retire HMAS TOBRUK early to provide crew for one of the LPAs and therefore her maintenance (and configuration control) had been run down in preparation for planned decommissioning. When plans were changed to retain HMAS TOBRUK until 2010 she resumed operations from this reduced maintenance base and as a consequence has required expensive running repairs.

Slippages to LPA Delivery Schedules