Greg Combet, The Australian Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, has announced reforms to Australia’s naval ship repair sector. “These reforms will lead to greater certainty in the naval ship repair sector allowing for increased investment and better performance,” Mr Combet said.

“Under these reforms, the Defence Materiel Organisation will reform the Navy’s Major Fleet Unit Repair and Maintenance programme as outlined in the Smart Sustainment initiative. The principal element of the reform programme is the establishment of long-term performance based contracts for repair and maintenance activities in lieu of the current arrangement that is based on awarding a contract under a panel arrangement for each and every maintenance activity.”