Earlier today I uploaded to the aadiDefence blog my colleague Bill Schofield’s Hargrave Memorial Lecture, which he delivered to the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society (Australian Division) on Monday 6 December.
It is a fascinating story about a great Australian innovation, and an inspiring one about one man’s persistence in seeing it through. It is also a sobering one: no matter how creative our fellow Australians might show themselves to be, there seems to be nothing in our institutional environment which encourages and facilitates the process: dogged spirits manage to succeed in spite of our systems rather than because of them. I know that this is a story that happened quite some time ago, but how much has changed? Not much, as far as I can see; in fact with the requirement for most of our public sector research organisations to justify their research programs by attracting industry funding, I fear things have gone backwards from the depressing picture that emerges from Bill’s lecture.
In spite of that aspect, it is an inspiring story, which you can access here.
This year’s annual Hargrave Lecture is to be delivered to the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society (Australian Division) by my friend and colleague Dr Bill Schofield AM. Bill was in charge of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) labs at Fishermans Bend throughout my time as Secretary, Department of Defence.
The lecture
The subject of the lecture will be David Warren, the Scientist, the Black Box Saga and the lessons learnt.
The impact of David Warren’s invention of the black box flight recorder has been immense - in a world where the volume of air travel continually increases yet the number of air accidents has gone down over the years because we can find out what causes aircraft to crash, David’s invention must have saved tens of thousands of lives. Not many scientists can say that about their work.
And yet he faced overwhelming opposition and indifference to the introduction of his black box. Recognition of him and his inventiveness came very late in life after he had finished regular employment and to this day there are many in Australia, let alone the world, who do not know that the black box was invented a few miles from the Melbourne CBD by a combustion chemist.
Soon after graduation Bill Schofield worked for David as an assistant, later as a colleague and became his admirer and friend. He was an extraordinary and unconventional man who went on to work on fuel cells and the world’s future energy supply long before others saw these as important scientific topics.
This lecture will recount some anecdotes that illustrate David’s unusual attitude to science, work and authority. It will also draw out some lessons from the Black Box story about the acceptance of disruptive technology.
The lecturer
Dr Bill Schofield is one of Australia’s leading scientists with a career spanning forty years in the Department of Defence and as a consultant on aeronautical and defence technology for Australian Industry.
He was the Director of the Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory for six years where he was responsible for all science and technology for the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. Before this Dr Schofield held the positions of First Assistant Secretary Science Policy, Chief of Air Vehicles Division and Chief of Flight Mechanics & Propulsion Division in the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.
He was a co-author of the ‘Kinnaird’ report to cabinet into defence acquisition practices which now sets the guidelines for all Defence acquisitions. Between 1996 and 2006 he has served on a number of advisory panels for the Victorian Government. He has led reviews of Australian defence industry for both the Federal and Victorian governments and was appointed by federal cabinet to the Board of the Australian Submarine Corporation [2006-2009]. He is Chairman of the CRC for Advanced Composite Structures and the board of another four defence and aeronautical related companies.
His achievements have been recognized by his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia for “For service to the Australian Defence Force’s aviation capabilities as a research scientist and administrator, particularly through the Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory” and the award of a Centenary Medal for “outstanding contribution to science and technology particularly public science policy”. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Member of the Institute of Company Directors.
Venue and timing
The lecture will be delivered at a dinner at the Crown Entertainment Complex at 6.00 for 6.30 pm on Monday 6 December 2010. Registrations close on Friday 26 November 2010.
Further details and details of how to register may be found on the RAeS Melbourne Branch’s website here.
Project Wedgetail, the project to develop the Royal Australian Air Force’s airborne early warning and control system, is in deep, deep trouble.There are (not unexpected) problems with integration of the aircraft’s Northrop Grumman Multi-role Electronically Scanned Radar Array (MESA) with the mission system, the communications system and the electronic support measures system on board the modified Boeing 737 aircraft. In addition, the MESA system itself has been referred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory for independent review.
Defence has stopped making progress payments to Boeing on the project, and Boeing has written off hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cancellation of the project is by no means beyond the bounds of possibility, which would be a tragedy not only because of the billions of dollars that have been invested in the capability but because the capability itself is so fundamental to the intended capabilities and modus operandi of the Australian Defence Force.
In light of this alarming prospect, it is worth rewinding the tape to remind ourselves what was said about Project Wedgetail in its early days and consider whether there are any lessons to be learned about defence acquisition processes and defence acquisition reform.
By way of background, in 1999 when Boeing was selected as the preferred tenderer for this very complex and difficult project, defence acquisition was the responsibility of the then Defence Acquisition Organisation (DAO), which was headed by a Deputy Secretary.In light of delays to the completion of earlier developmental projects, the Collins class submarine project and the Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar Network (JORN), the Howard Government decided that the acquisition system needed to be reformed. The Deputy Secretary who headed DAO was dumped in brutal fashion, the position was upgraded to a higher level position, and the Defence Materiel Organisation was born.
In fact Defence had already learned some important lessons from these two complex indigenous projects, and had proceeded in a very innovative fashion to minimise the technological risk of Project Wedgetail.First, it had involved the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) very closely in the process, something that had been conspicuously lacking long after JORN was found to be in trouble.Second, after reviewing the bids from consortia led by Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, it obtained Government approval to pay these companies about $27 million in total to refine their bids, so that source selection could be made on the basis of more highly developed proposals. Needless to say Defence was criticised in some quarters for “giving” money to these international defence primes, but for a project that was expected to cost $3.5 billion and involved high technological risk, this was prudent expenditure designed to look after the interests of Defence and the taxpayer.
In the event, Boeing was selected in 1999 as the preferred tenderer, and the contract was signed in 2000. In his 20 December 2000 media release announcing the contract, the then Minister, John Moore said, inter alia:
The AEW&C Project has been leading the way for reform within the Defence Materiel Organisation, with an innovative tender and selection process involving close liaison with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the Air Force, and close interaction with Boeing as a part of Integrated Product Teams during the development and production phase will lead to Australia acquiring a world class AEW&C capability.
Note how the innovation of the dumped Deputy Secretary was held up as an example of the success of the Government’s reform of the acquisition system.
Fast forward to 1 November 2002, when another Defence Minister, Robert Hill, again held up Project Wedgetail as an example of the success of Government’s acquisition reforms.In a media release of that date, Senator Hill said:
Defence Minister Robert Hill today saw the first airframe for Australia's new $3.45 billion airborne early warning and control aircraft fleet - fresh off the production line at Boeing's Military Flight Centre in Seattle, United States....
With the first air frame ready for modification we expect our first Wedgetail aircraft to fly before the end of the year - around six months ahead of schedule - with the first two aircraft of the fleet expected to be in service in 2007.
Defence's Project Wedgetail is off to a great start. It is under budget and ahead of schedule - evidence that the Government's acquisition reforms are beginning to bear fruit.
Actually, all that had been demonstrated by this was that Boeing knew how to build a B-737 aircraft, and I think we already knew that.
My takeouts from this story, none of them particularly intellectually challenging, are:
- The hard part of these high risk developmental projects always comes at the end, not the beginning, and meeting early milestones on time and within budget is no guide to the final outcome.
- Because of this it takes many years to establish that reforms to the acquisition system do actually constitute an improvement (if indeed they contribute anything), and in the meantime a little humility would be appropriate.
- No matter how hard one tries to minimise the risk of developmental projects, doing something at a level of technology and systems integration that has never been achieved before is inherently risky.
- No amount of tampering with the defence acquisition organisation chart will ameliorate the intrinsic technological challenges that it is the responsibility of the contractor to resolve.
Dr Bruce Hinton of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has been honoured by the U.S.-based professional organisation NACE International (formerly the National Association of Corrosion Engineers) as the 2009 recipient of its prestigious F.N. Speller award. He is the first Australian to win the award.
The F.N. Speller Award, which is named after a U.S. pioneer in metallurgy and corrosion engineering, recognizes significant contributions to corrosion engineering. Recipients of this award have made an international contribution through education or work promoting development or improvement of a method, process, and type of equipment or material that facilitates control of corrosion or makes the process more economical.
Dr Hinton received the award in recognition of his sustained and insightful application of corrosion science and engineering to the solution and prevention of corrosion problems on Australian Defence Force aircraft over a period of 40 years.
In the course of his career, Dr Hinton has conducted research in numerous areas including atmospheric corrosion, corrosion inhibition, conversion coatings, stress corrosion cracking, corrosion sensors, corrosion fatigue, and hydrogen embrittlement. This work was carried out not only at DSTO, but also through collaboration with both industry and academia in Australia and overseas.
His work has increased aircraft availability for operational use, and significantly reduced the time and money spent on aircraft maintenance.A program to proactively manage corrosion in Australia’s Black Hawk fleet in the 1990s was one of Dr Hinton’s most significant contributions to Defence.
On 25 March Dr Hinton delivered the 2009 F. N. Speller lecture at the Corrosion 2009 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, on ‘Prevention and Control of Corrosion in Aircraft: Changes Over Four Decades’.
Dr Hinton has also received the Defence Minister’s Award for Achievement in Defence Science for his work on corrosion control and management.
More detail of Dr Hinton’s work may be found here.
