JFD Australia to supply RAN sub rescue system
JFD Australia, an undersea combat support systems partner of the Australian Defence Force, is to continue supplying its submarine rescue system to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for at least the next four years.
Courtesy JFD
As the provider of this critically important sovereign capability for more than a decade, JFD Australia has been awarded a significant contract extension with the Federal Government to deliver the submarine escape and rescue service until December 2023 with an option to further extend to November 2024.
In Australia, submarine rescue involves sending a smaller or 'mini' piloted submarine to a disabled submarine to rescue the crew on board and transfer them safely under pressure to the ocean’s surface where they are able to receive potentially life-saving decompression treatment in a specially-designed hyperbaric equipment suite.
Valued at approximately AU$70 million, the changes through this contract extension will create at least four full-time defence industry jobs bringing the number of new positions JFD has created in the past six months to 10. This extension will also see an increased focus in involving more local West Australian industry, particularly in the specialist area of operating the system’s new hyperbaric treatment chambers.
Further, the contract also guarantees the continued employment of the workforce of up to 60, including highly skilled specialist engineers and tradespeople at JFD’s Australian headquarters at Bibra Lake in Perth who ensure that the submarine rescue system is 'rescue ready' and on standby to respond to a submarine emergency anywhere in the world.
Mr Toff Idrus, Managing Director, JFD Australia (and a former submariner), said: “Keeping submariners and other defence force personnel safe has been, and will always be, JFD’s highest priority.
“With our submarine rescue service being one of only four air-transportable systems in the world, each and every one of us is focused on saving lives and we look forward to continuing to be a reliable partner for the RAN through the ongoing delivery of this proven submarine escape and rescue service.”
JFD Australia’s ever expanding sovereign capability, with its advanced production centre in Bibra Lake and manufacturing facilities in Kirrawee, south of Sydney and Warners Bay, near Newcastle in New South Wales, has seen it develop into a one-stop-shop for the delivery of safe, sovereign subsea systems that also include diving and special forces activities.