Press Conference, RAAF Williamtown

SUBJECTS: Announcement of $569 million to maintain the capability of the Australian Defence Force's Wedgetail fleet.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Well, good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be here at RAAF Williamtown. I love getting out here and I want to thank everyone in the Defence Force that is hosting me today. And I'm looking forward to catching up and chatting with some of the, not just the ADF personnel but the personnel from our great ally the United States who are here as well. And also, if I can acknowledge that we meet on the land of the Worimi people, acknowledge the traditional owners past, present and emerging.

Well, standing behind me is an E-7 Wedgetail which is, and I say this without too much contradiction, the most advanced surveillance aircraft in the world. It's a great capability; it is the eyes of the Royal Australian Air Force and it's been deployed on a number of operations. Whether it was on the original search for the Eastern Malaysian Airlines aircraft or being deployed to the Middle East to support the actions against ISIS. The E-7 Wedgetail has been the eyes of the Royal Australian Air Force for over a decade now. It provides a great capability for the Australian Defence Force and it's critical that we maintain and support it into the future throughout the life of its service. And that's why today I'm announcing a $569 million dollar contract to upgrade the Wedgetail fleet to keeping the most advanced aircraft in the world until it finishes its service in the 2035, 2040 time frame. Importantly, this announcement not only maintains this excellent capability, a capability that's now being deployed into the US Air Force. And that's why we've got a US Air Force personnel here with us on base, but also with our European partners. And I know that the Wedgetail is a great service being deployed to Germany to support the European partners efforts around supporting Ukraine. So, this $569 million contract will help maintain the capability that the Wedgetail provides for the Royal Australian Air Force.

It also will support over 300 defence industry jobs including 170 in the Hunter. Those 170 jobs contribute to maintaining and upgrading the Wedgetail Aircraft. They're part of the 10,000 defence industry jobs in the Hunter. People who get up every day, contribute to the defence of the nation, make our nation safer, but also put food on their family's table and are participating in high skills, high-tech jobs that really do benefit the nation. Those 10,000 jobs range across supporting the Joint Strike Fighter to companies like New Press that are making parts for our missile enterprise. So, my message to the people in the Australian defence industry is thank you for what you do. Thank you to keep Australia safer. Thank you for partnering with Australian Defence Force who get up every day to protect our nation. This is part of the Albanese Labor government's record investment in the defence of the nation. We are increasing the defence budget by $50 billion over the next decade. That will help make the nation safer but also will help support that 100,000 defence industry jobs, including 10,000 in the Hunter.

So, I will finish my prepared remarks there. I'll invite the assembled media to, to ask me some questions. I'll ask you to ask questions specifically on this amount first and then if you've got questions that are broader, I'll ask the ADF personnel to move away so that they're not caught in the crossfire, so to speak.

JOURNALIST: Could you just tell us a bit more about the upgrades that are being spent to improve - is it improvement, is it maintenance?

MINISTER CONROY: I'll invite the Royal Australian Air Force personnel to supplement my answer. But it'll go to upgrading systems such as the electronic support systems and the communication systems as well as the ground systems. So, this is the eyes of the Air Force, and we need to maintain it and that involves upgrading the software and the support system. And I'll see if the Air Force wants to add anything to that?

SPEAKER A: Pretty much covered everything, I don't really have much more to add to that.

MINISTER CONROY: There we go.

JOURNALIST: And as for the jobs, what kind of positions are they? Are you actively recruiting?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've got a great defence industry base that's already here. It will be jobs through Boeing Defence Australia that are the prime contractor for this but also BAE Systems that maintain what's called the electronic support measures as well as a number of other companies including Nova Systems, that's a great Australian owned test and evaluation company. So, there's a range of companies that already supported. There's 300 jobs in that area and there's 360 direct jobs supporting the Wedgetail every single day.

JOURNALIST: Is it like engineering jobs, mechanical?

MINISTER CONROY: Yeah. Well, I'll invite the Air Force reps to supplement but it's both, it's engineering, it's technical work but I'll see if anyone has anything to that?

SPEAKER A: Primarily technical, but all positions.

JOURNALIST: And can you just, obviously, we might keep you there for a moment. We can't sort of see inside but just tell us, maybe you could paint a bit of a picture what it looks like inside and how much tech is in there doing this surveillance?

SPEAKER B: Good morning. Inside there are 10 positions where the crew work together to provide that surveillance. Not only air surveillance but air battle management. And they are supported by the entire system including the radar that you can see on top of the aircraft and all the other systems on board work together to create that. So, you have the surveillance picture, you have the communication suite. And that enables that the aircraft to see everything, but also to communicate what it is does feedback into the ADF system as well.

MINISTER CONROY: And this is the most advanced surveillance aircraft in the world. And it's an essential partner with our other assets, whether it's F35 Joint Strike Fighters or Super Hornets or Growlers. And the feedback I've had not just from the ADF but our partner countries; I've heard from my counterparts in the United States that during the inspection against ISIS in Syria and Iraq that U.S. Air Force strike squadrons really prefer to partner with the E-7 Wedgetails of these Royal Australian Air Force compared to their own surveillance aircraft. They said it in a very respectful way, but they could see the great capability that was being offered and that's why they're acquiring these aircraft themselves.

JOURNALIST: How many of these do we have? And you mentioned they are going to finish their service at some point. What happens after that?

MINISTER CONROY: We've got six of them that we've acquired a couple of decades ago. They started entering service early in the 2010s. They will be replaced in the 2035-2040 time frame. So, a lot of these things, like someone's iPhone, software upgrades do maintain their capability but at some stage you do need to replace the actual asset. So, the plan is to replace them in 10 to 15 year’s time. But that's why this upgrade is so critical because it maintains the capability each we've got, and it sustains 170 jobs in the Hunter region as part of that 300 strong workforce.

JOURNALIST: How much is one of these worth?

MINISTER CONROY: The actual aircraft? Oh, that's a good question. I'm wondering. The original acquisition was a multi-billion dollar acquisition. We can get you those figures. Unless someone's got it off the top of their head. No, we'll get you those figures. But it was a multi-billion dollar acquisition when it was created. And in fact, I worked for Minister Greg Combet when we came to power in 2007. One of our first jobs was to partner with the ADF and Department of Defence to get the project back on track. This was a developmental project. We were trying to do things that were right at the edge of the laws of physics, and I'll say it was a real challenge to get them delivered. But we did. And now they're the most advanced capability in the world. Any other questions about this specific announcement? No. Excellent. Well, I might thank the ADF colleagues and ask them to move out of shot to see if there's any other questions? Completely fine. If there's no other questions? No? Going easy on me, fair enough.

Well, thank you very much for coming out and I might have a wander around and meet some of the great crew working on these projects, so thanks very much.

ENDS