QinetiQ rapidly designed the required parts for the submarine maintenance activity. Many of the components were produced locally by additive manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises in Perth, Western Australia, while the rest were made on Australia’s east coast and by QinetiQ Australia.
The company is a longstanding strategic partner to the UK’s Submarine Delivery Group. However, QinetiQ said this was the first time the Royal Navy had used advanced manufacturing to produce submarine components in support of a routine maintenance period in Australia.
The achievement marks an important step towards enabling Submarine Rotational Force – West. SRF-West is a key part of AUKUS Pillar 1, which supports Australia’s future conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.
QinetiQ used its global presence to reverse engineer the required parts in the UK. The technical data was then securely transferred to QinetiQ Australia, which worked with local suppliers to manufacture the components.
After approval by the Submarine Delivery Group Additive Manufacturing Team, the parts were delivered to the crew of HMS Anson. The crew installed the components during the maintenance period at HMAS Stirling.
“QinetiQ’s global reach and established local engineering capability enabled us to move quickly to support HMS Anson in Australia,” said Corry Neale, Chief Executive, QinetiQ Australia.
“We will continue to support AUKUS Pillar 1 activities and provide opportunities to Australian companies to be part of this internationally significant, complex supply chain,” Neale said.
