The joint strike fighter is one of 15 major defence projects suffering delays due to Covid-19, the Australian National Audit Office has said.
In a report released on Monday, the ANAO found defence’s largest 25 projects currently have a budget of $78.7bn – which is $24.2bn more than when they achieved second pass approval.
The budget variation is in line with previous years, and reflects cost overruns and changes to program scope, such as the extra $10.5bn tipped into the JSF program to purchase 58 more fighters.
The ANAO found that 19 of the 25 projects will deliver all their capability requirements.
The five projects “experiencing challenges” with capability are the joint strike fighter, MRH90 multi-role helicopters, Hawkei protected vehicles, the battlefield command system and the battlefield airlifter.
The air warfare destroyer ships project is “unable to deliver all of the required capability by [final operational capability]”, it said.
Project summaries provided by defence explained that is because “the radar-electronic attack has been deferred as currently available technology does not represent a cost-capability benefit”.
The department warned the joint strike fighter “may be affected by technical deficiencies, delay in delivery schedule, funding or programming issues, or delays in delivery of an effective training system”.
Australia is relying on cooperation with the US and other nations to develop and sustain the joint strike fighter’s systems, but that cooperation “may be compromised by security or cyber breaches”.
Fifteen of the 25 projects have experienced delays due to Covid-19, due to supply chain disruption, workforce limitations and contractor delays. The defence department said the average delay is three to six months.
In the case of the joint strike fighter, the report’s annexures said travel restrictions “are limiting the ability of US-based staff” to install and test specialist equipment in Australia.
The multi-role helicopters achieved 55.8% of their planned “rate of effort” – hours flown – in 2019-20, a sign that its performance is “below the required … bands”.
“The current design of the self-protection weapons system is not meeting capability requirements.”
The ANAO found the total schedule slippage for the 25 selected major projects in June was 507 months when compared to the initial schedule.
That delay is “144 months lower than the total in 2018–19 of 651 months”, it said.
The secretary of the defence department, Greg Moriarty, said the report “provides transparency on the progress of defence’s most expensive and complex acquisition projects”.
Despite the fact 2019-20 has been a “challenging year”, Moriarty said defence and related industry have “shown strong resilience and adaptability to maintain capability delivery at a high operational tempo, and remain postured to manage the risks associated with further Covid-19 impacts on supply chains”.
Moriarty said Australia had received 12 joint strike fighters in 2019-20 and in June had a total of 26, including 21 in Australia and five in the pilot training centre in the US. A further four have been delivered since June.
