An Alliance Principals’ Council has been established to build strong team partnerships between the key partners of the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Program, Defence Minister Senator Hill announced today.

This represents another major step for the Air Warfare Destroyer Program following the recent announcement that the AWD System Centre will be established in South Australia.

Senator Hill said the Principals’ Council had a very important role to play over the next two years in shaping the course of the Program, leading up to formal consideration by the Government in mid 2007.

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie, RAN (Rtd) as the Chairman and independent member of the Council. Admiral Ritchie brings a wealth of Navy experience to this key position in one of Australia’s most important and complex Defence Programs," Senator Hill said.

"Members of the Principals’ Council are Mr John Prescott, Chairman of ASC; Mr Dan Smith, Executive Vice President of Raytheon Integrated Defence Systems; Lieutenant General David Hurley, Chief of Capability Development Group; and Dr Stephen Gumley, CEO Defence Materiel Organisation.

"The AWD Principals’ Council rests above the Alliance Project Board and is designed to build strong team relationships between the project’s alliance partners."

The construction of the AWDs will be one of the significant shipbuilding projects undertaken in Australia to date, and will provide enormous opportunities for Australian shipbuilding industry with important flow-on benefits for key sub-contractors throughout Australia.

Last month Senator Hill announced that South Australia will be home to the new headquarters of the Air Warfare Destroyer project creating up to 200 additional jobs in SA, as well as generating specialised design work for contractors throughout Australia.

The systems centre will include representatives from the Alliance Partners – the Commonwealth, the shipbuilder ASC, the systems integrator Raytheon and the ship designer.

In August the Government announced it had chosen United States based company Gibbs & Cox as the preferred platform systems designer of the AWDs based on a superior bid in terms of value for money.

The Gibbs & Cox evolved design will now compete with an Australianised version of Spanish company NAVANTIA’s existing F100 ship design, and will be further considered by the Government as part of the next phase of the project.