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The companies have agreed to collaborate for the sustainment of Australia’s warships.
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Babcock Australasia and NORSTA Maritime (NORSTA) have teamed up as part of Plan Galileo — a program aimed at establishing regional maintenance centres (RMCs) to support the sustainment of the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) warships.
This follows Babcock subsidiary Naval Ship Management’s selection as the Regional Maintenance Provider (RMP) West for the sustainment of RAN ships at Henderson, Western Australia over the next five years.
NORSTA is expected to leverage its experience as the RMP North East, with the company tasked with managing the maintenance of vessels in Cairns, Queensland in May 2020.
Babcock Australasia’s executive director, strategy and future business, Martin Halloran, said Babcock’s new collaboration with NORSTA would provide the companies with an opportunity to “build consistent approaches and share best practice”.
“A key element of Plan Galileo is bringing together the Commonwealth, large defence companies and small business suppliers to drive a common and consistent approach to naval maintenance across the RMCs,” he said.
“Committing our two organisations to work together will help ensure we offer the Commonwealth a national perspective.
“We are also committed to reducing barriers to entry for Defence-ready SMEs. This includes the implementation of a shared national sustainment supply chain to support small to medium business growth plans and the development of enduring sovereign naval sustainment industry capability in our region.”
The companies are expected to collaborate across best practice health, safety, and environmental control measures.
Joint continuous improvement activities are also set to be implemented in a bid to identify efficiencies and opportunities for improvement in any region, where applicable.
According to NORSTA’s general manager, Stewart Barr, the company’s work as RMP North East has already improved the efficiency of naval sustainment delivery in Cairns.
“Collaboration at all levels is important. We are working closely with our supply chain and other regional organisations such as the Cairns Regional Council and we’re seeing immediate positive results,” he said.
“NORSTA looks forward to extending this across the nation with our collaboration with Babcock.”
Babcock and Atlantic & Peninsula — which have partnered under Team Bower — and NORSTA have also committed to extending their relationship if selected by the Commonwealth for RMP East (Sydney) and RMP North (Darwin).
