19 Juli 2013
C-130H Angkatan Udara Australia (photo : Bisnis Jabar)
RI Beli 5 Unit Hercules dari Australia
JAKARTA —
Pemerintah RI melalui Kementerian Pertahanan akan membeli lima unit
Pesawat Hercules dari Australia untuk memperkuat sistem pertahanan
udara.
Menteri
Pertahanan Purnomo Yusgiantoro menuturkan pemerintah akan membeli lima
unit Hercules dengan harga murah. Hanya saja, Purnomo tidak menyebutkan
harga yang disepakati oleh kedua pihak.
Selain membeli
lima unit pesawat, Pemerintah RI juga akan mendapatkan empat unit
pesawat Hercules berupa hibah dari negara pimpinan Perdana Menteri Kevin
Rudd itu.
“Besok kami akan
bertemu dengan Qantas Defence service untuk membicarakan 4 pesawat yang
hibah. Selain itu, kami juga beli 5 pesawat. Harga 5 pesawar itu murah
sekali,” ujar Purnomo usai menghadiri acara Buka Bersama antara Presiden
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dengan Keluarga Besar Polri di Mabes Polri,
Jakarta, Kamis (18/7/2013).
Purnomo
optimistis dengan kerjasama ini. Dia menyebutkan kualitas pesawat
Hercules tersebut cukup baik. Di sisi lain, ujarnya, Indonesia memiliki
banyak suku cadang untuk jenis pesawat Hercules.
“Serinya [seri pesawat yang hhibah maupun yang dibeli] H. Kalau di-upgrade bisa buat 15 tahun,” katanya.
(Bisnis Jabar)
19 Juli 2013
JAS-39 Gripen of RTAF (photo : Militaryphotos)
Gripen fighter school in SA a missed opportunity
The fact that
Saab’s Gripen Fighter Weapon School will most likely be located in a
foreign country is a missed opportunity for South Africa, according to
Saab.
Magnus
Lewis-Olsson, President of Saab South Africa, told defenceWeb at the
Land Forces Africa conference Pretoria yesterday the School was planned
to be housed at Air Force Base Overberg in the Western Cape. However,
the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has not supported this
initiative.
Lewis-Olsson
did not comment on why the SANDF has not agreed to host the School, and
said Saab is looking elsewhere in the world. He said Saab had completed
its syllabus and was ready to begin construction of the School and start
training. “Other countries are interested in the School,” he said, with
countries like Thailand being good potential hosts.
South Africa is
a great location and it would have been a win-win situation to have the
School in the Western Cape, as South African pilots would have
benefitted, the Saab South Africa President said, adding that if the
academy had gone ahead, it would have been a great opportunity to
showcase South Africa’s capabilities.
“We are not
going to kick up a fuss about this,” Lewis-Olsson said referring to
SANDF reluctance to partner with Saab on the academy. “It is a missed
opportunity for Saab and South Africa.”
In July last
year Saab announced at the Farnborough Air Show that it would establish
the School in South Africa, but shortly afterwards the SANDF denied the
whole affair.
Saab had
planned to run the first course with at least six students in late 2013
using between four and six South African Air Force (SAAF) Gripen C/D
fighters.
A 1 000 square
metres building at AFB Overberg would have been dedicated to the school
and would have included briefing and debriefing rooms, a lecture hall,
lunchroom, locker rooms, a gym and sauna, offices and IT infrastructure.
South African and Swedish Air Force instructors would have conducted
the course, Saab said.
(Defenceweb)
18 Juli 2013
Collins class submarines (photo : Aus DoD)
After more than
a decade of controversy, shipbuilder ASC says it has finally solved
outstanding problems with the navy's six Collins submarines.
Steve Ludlam,
managing director of ASC, formerly the Australian Submarine Corporation,
said he believed Collins' much publicised problems were now behind
them.
"We are getting a much higher level of availability. We are getting good reliability at sea," he told AAP.
"They are very
complex machines and we can't guarantee that everything will run
perfectly all the time, but the principal areas of concern have now been
solved."
Collins
submarines had a range of problems from the outset, including excessive
noise and an unreliable computerised combat system, prompting an
extended and costly remediation program.
But reliability
problems persisted with Collins' diesel-electric propulsion system.
Each boat has three large diesel engines, three generators and an
electric motors. Each has had problems.
Mr Ludlam said they had been able to work out how to reduce diesel engine vibration and a reliable engine-start system.
"Our engineer team here at ASC, who are some of the world's best, have been able to figure that through," he said.
"We worked with an international diesel specialist company to make sure we were getting the right answers."
Neither were generators problem-free.
"We found a
method of rewinding those generators. They are much more reliable now.
Progressively we are replacing generators on the submarines," he said.
Similarly, the large electric motor experienced a particular issue where the windings had relaxed.
"Working with
the DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation) and DMO (Defence
Materiel Organisation) we have figured out to fix that and progressively
we are fitting that fix to each of the submarines as they come in for
various levels of maintenance," he said.
ASC is now working on two of the Collins subs.
HMAS Collins,
the first of the Collins boats has been undergoing full cycle docking, a
regular and comprehensive refurbishment, since last August. That should
run for two years.
HMAS Rankin,
the youngest of the Collins boats, has been out of the water for six
years and mothballed for much of that time. Its full cycle docking
started in 2011 and it should be back in the water next year.
(Sidney Morning Herald)
